Elemental Girls Book 1 - Power of Reality
by RocketRaccoon4ever
Summary: The Guardians of the Galaxy were supposed to find and deliver the Reality Stone to the Nova Corps. Instead they get wrapped up in an ancient prophecy foretelling that three girls will save the universe. Can the Guardians help their new friends; Alexi, Harmony, and Courtney; before Thanos and a group of scientists catch them?
1. The Art of the Sleepover

**The Art of The Sleepover**

Courtney, Alexi, and Harmony lay curled up on Courtney's couch, eyes glued to the horror movie currently playing on the TV. It was midnight in their hometown of Miami, Florida. A chilly night in October. Alexi was pushed up against the arm of the sofa, bowl of ice cream in her hands. Courtney lay on top of her, popcorn falling out of her mouth. Harmony was stretched out on the opposite couch, skittle packets laying around her. Their discarded sleeping bags lay on the air mattresses, which had quickly turned into trash cans. They didn't plan on sleeping tonight. The movie they were watching was called Krampus, and it was amazing! At least in Alexi's opinion. Harmony and Courtney were terrified. Nothing scared Alexi though. Well, not a lot of things scared her.

A huge scene was coming up mid-way through the movie and all the girls were silently watching and waiting for what they guessed was an inevitable jump scare. Instead, a blinding flash of light shone outside the window, it lit up the whole room and all the girls jumped off the couch in horror. They heard a loud BANG and an orange glow seemed to emit from the outside. Instantly, the ever curious Harmony jumped up, skittle packets flying, and ran to get her sneakers on. Alexi threw Courtney off of her and they both jumped and ran to get their coats.

All three girls ran out the door and down the stone pathway to Courtney's sprawling jungle of a backyard. They skidded to a halt at the bottom of the path and froze. There, laying in a burning heap of metal, was an orange and blue spaceship. The whole thing was shuddering and shaking, flames leaping towards the sky. Alexi was the first to race towards the ship, Harmony on her heels. Courtney came up behind, standing a safe distance away due to the intense smoke coming off of the craft. Harmony used her shoulder and pushed the door in. Both girls rushed inside and started looking for anyone who was alive.

First Harmony found a very muscled looking man laying unconscious on the ground. She grabbed his arm and started hauling him out of the ship. She passed Alexi who was lifting a green skinned lady out of the wreckage. They took the two people outside and layed them on the ground. Then they both ran back inside and started searching the back rooms. Harmony found a pot with a small tree inside. A crack was running alongside the pot so Harmony lifted it with much care and then turned to leave. She stopped when she saw another man, this one more human-like, laying on the ground. His arm was twisted oddly. Harmony grabbed him too. Alexi was carrying a small raccoon in an orange jumpsuit.

The girls carried the odd people out of the burning ship while Courtney turned on the hose and put out the fire. The girls moved the odd group inside and layed them down on the soft carpeting. They looked relativity okay, the human guy looked like his arm was out of place and the green lady had a cut along her forehead that was bleeding, but the rest were okay. Minus the fact that the girls had just discovered aliens.

* * *

Gamora blinked open her eyes. Her head was spinning and all she could see was the fire, guns, and invading army. All she heard was Peter's frantic shouting at the ship. All she remembered was smashing her head against the wall of the Milano as the ship exploded into flames. Where was she? Where were the others? Was she dead? Were they dead? Gamora tried to sit up but her vision was completely wonky. The room she was in seemed to spin, and small black dots were appearing in her line of sight. All of a sudden a hand rested on Gamora's forehead. It gently pushed her head back down onto the soft surface beneath her.

"Hey, it's okay." A female's voice said. "Your friends are okay. Your vision might be off because you have a slight concussion." Gamora closed her eyes and relaxed at knowing her friends were okay. Then her mind started whirling again, a splitting headache making it's presence known. Gamora felt her body mods already going to work on the cut along her forehead. Something soft and wet wiped the blood off of her face. Gamora slowly was able to open up her eyes and looked up at the girl (Who she guessed was Terran, judging by her stature) sitting next to her.

The girl had tanned skin and was extremely thin with wiry muscles dominating her arms and legs. Her hair was a bright fiery red that fell in ringlets down to her shoulder blades. Her brown eyes were large and wide, thick eyelashes making them look even larger. She had a kind smile on her face. Gamora then noticed something else about the girl, her fashion style was rather gothic. Leather jacket over a white T-shirt with a skull on it, lace choker wrapped around her neck, small skull earrings, long black and purple leather pants, calf high black boots, and black and silver nail polish.

"Hey, how do you feel?" The girl asked Gamora. Her voice was light but the lightness sounded forced. _She's probably talking like that because loud noises can affect concussions._ Gamora decided.

"I'm fine." Gamora answered her, sitting up a little. The girl nodded, her posture relaxing a little. Gamora looked around the room she was in. It was a large room inside what looked like a rather large house. _We must have crashed on Terra._ Gamora concluded. The room had a gray ceiling and tan walls. Pictures of young children were hung in wooden frames around the room. Two couches covered in blankets and food were pushed against the walls in front of her. A small table with a lamp gave off the only light in the room. Behind her was a TV and to her right was a dark room with another couch and many other objects scattered around. Gamora was laying on a mattress on the carpeted floor.

Gamora saw Drax sitting against the wall, looking wary of the new environment. Groot was sitting in his pot on the table looking drowsy. Quill was laying with his arm in a sling next to her, slowly blinking his eyes open. Gamora looked to her other side and saw Rocket sitting upright on the other mattress, fiddling with his fur. Sitting on the couch were two other girls. One had dark skin and frizzy hair held back by a white headband. The other had pale skin and had a blue bandanna tied around her head. Gamora sat up and placed her back against the nearby wall, Quill managing to boost himself up with only one arm.

The Guardians looked at the three young girls that sat in front of them. Red head went back and plopped down on the couch next to frizz hair. The girls stared back at the Guardians, their eyes challenging them to speak first. Of course Peter did.

"Who are you three?" he asked. "Are we on Terra? Where's my ship? What happened?" Quill rapid fired questions onto the three girls. Frizz hair and bandanna looked at red head. Apparently they followed her. Red head spoke up.

"My name is Alexi." She said. "This is Harmony," Alexi motioned to frizz hair. "And this is Courtney." She pointed at bandanna. Gamora observed the other two girls more closely.

Harmony had cat-like brown eyes that looked near black, her eyelashes longer then the others'. She looked older then the other two, Gamora guessed her height was about 5 ft 8 while Alexi looked around 5 ft 5 and Courtney looked about 5 ft 6. Harmony also was very well developed in her, um, chest area. She wore a black cross back top with a white sweater over it that said, Messy Hair Don't Care. She had on blue yoga pants. Her nails were pained electric blue and had small silver spots on them.

Courtney had extremely pale skin, downcast blue oval eyes, and small freckles dotted across her nose. She was thin like Alexi but had some muscle on her legs, more then Harmony, less then Alexi. She wore white shoes with a lone red stripe going around the outside. The heel read Converse. She had on short jean shorts and a breezy white top that said I'm #1! on it. Her nails were bright green and seemed to be glowing.

"You are on planet Earth." Alexi continued. "I don't know anything about a planet called Terra. Your ship is in the backyard."

"If that's a ship I'd hate to see a junk heap." Harmony grumbled under her breath. Alexi slugged her in the arm.

"Anyway," Alexi continued. "You guys apparently crashed." Rocket mumbled something but no one caught it. Gamora guessed he said something along the lines of 'well ya don't say!'. Alexi sat back as Peter and the others went over this information in their heads.

"Well this isn't good." Peter stated dryly. Rocket rolled his eyes.

"How about you tell us who you guys are?" Harmony asked. That girl had a lot of sass! Her hand went to her hip and she leaned to the side as she said it, focusing her cat eyes on the Guardians. Her voice was a mix of deep and light all at once.

Peter cleared his throat and spoke first. "My name is Peter Quill, most people call me Star-Lord."

"No one call him that." Rocket interrupted. Peter shot Rocket a look then continued talking.

"Anyway, I'm part Terr-I mean Human. This is Gamora. Over there is Drax the Destroyer. That's Rocket Raccoon, and over on the table is Groot." Peter finished with his introduction of his team. The Guardians glanced warily around the room.

"Where exactly on Terra are we?" Gamora asked, rubbing the healing cut on her head. When the girls didn't reply right away Gamora added, "Terra is another name for Earth." The girls nodded.

"You guys crashed in my backyard, you're in Miami, Florida." Courtney answered. Her voice was thin and small but she spoke well and sophisticated. She seemed to be the youngest of the three, seeing how tiny she was.

"Are all three of you sisters?" Drax asked. The girls shook their heads.

"We were just having a sleepover with Courtney." Harmony answered. She wrapped an arm around Courtney's shoulder.

"We like to think we're all sisters though." Alexi added. Gamora had one question nagging her.

"How old are you three?" She asked.

"I'm 11." Harmony answered. Gamora tried to keep her face neutral. _How was this girl only 11? She was almost 6 feet tall and looked like a teenager!_

"I'm 12." Courtney continued. _So small for her age._ Thought Peter.

"And I'm 13." Alexi finished. _At least she looks her age._ Gamora noted. _Minus the well-defined muscles._ Harmony all of a sudden got up and headed down a short hallway towards a room with wood floors and marble counter-tops.

"I'm hungry." She declared. Then Harmony turned around. "Do you guys want anything?" She asked. The Guardians glanced at Peter, he was the only one that knew of Terran food.

"Send over some more ice cream!" Alexi called. Courtney rolled her eyes.

"I'll remember that all you eat is ice cream next time we hang out." She remarked.

"Well when you buy the good kind that's exactly what will happen." Harmony tossed a container at Alexi who caught it swiftly. The container read Cotton Candy Ice Cream. The Guardians remembered just how hungry they were. Alexi sat down on the mattress with Courtney and opened the container.

"You guys want any?" She offered. Some small metal spoons were laid out on the ground. Peter reached for one first, then Gamora. Harmony came back out and tossed two boxes on the ground. The word Pizza was written on them. She handed Alexi a can that read Root Beer.

"Oh no you don't!' Courtney quickly grabbed the can from Alexi. "You already had four cans of this tonight! The fact your not getting you usual soda spasms is odd enough. No more soda." Courtney's voice was firm but Alexi yanked the bottle back and took a gulp out of it.

"Is that real beer?" Rocket asked. watching Alexi place the can down. She laughed.

"Nah, but if you drink enough of it you might have the same effects as if it were." Alexi answered.

Courtney rolled her eyes. "Your crazy enough without the soda." Alexi lightly hit Courtney on the arm. The Guardians found it hard to believe these girls weren't related somehow, they acted so familiar with each other.

"So, you guys are aliens." The way Harmony said it, it sounded more like a statement then a question. The Guardians nodded anyway.

"We're the Guardians of the Galaxy." Peter stated proudly. The name had no effect on the girls.

"Outer space is cool." Courtney mentioned. Her eyes had a far-off look in them. She smiled lightly. "So how many alien races are there?" She asked.

"Thousands." Gamora answered. "Many more then anyone could count." Courtney nodded.

"Court here is a huge nerd with space and everything." Alexi laughed. Courtney nodded in confirmation.

"I get it from my dad, you know that." Courtney smiled.

"Is your father a scientist?" Drax asked. Courtney shrugged.

"Kinda." She answered. "He's currently on the ISS, or International Space Station to study moon dust." Courtney explained. "He left about 5 months ago and he'll be back in about a year, maybe two."

Peter felt sorry for the kid. He had grown up without his father in the picture. Her dad had to leave when she was old enough to remember him, that was the hard part. It was easier to not have someone in your life if you never knew them.

"Well I'm going to sleep." Harmony announced. She climbed up on the one couch and stretched out, kicking half of the pillows off in the process. Alexi rolled her eyes and downed the rest of the soda in one gulp. Courtney grimaced at the sight.

"Come on." Alexi said to the rest of the Guardians, her speech was slurred slightly and her legs seemed unsteady as she stood up. "You guys are probably tired." The Guardians nodded. they honestly were pretty tired.

"My mom won't be getting up until later. They can sleep down here on the air mattresses." Courtney offered. Alexi nodded and took over the other couch, curling up against the arm rest in a tight ball.

Baby Groot was already asleep in his pot. Gamora stretched out on the mattress she was already laying on. Peter lay next to her. Drax took the other one and Rocket curled up in a pile of blankets. Courtney took the rest of the couch that Alexi wasn't occupying. As everyone drifted off Gamora couldn't help but watch the three strangers that had saved them. She hoped the other Guardians had made the connection to the three girls as well. When the Guardians had been crashing, the red infinity gem, known as Reality, had uttered a prophecy.

 _There shall come three, born from Earthen flesh, one with the spirit of a wildfire, one as docile as the water, another as sharp as the wind. They shall posses the elements which have brought them unto your presence and shall save the known realms from a disaster more then universal. So speaks The Elemental prophecy!_


	2. Meanwhile, In Sanctuary

**Meanwhile, In Sanctuary**

It was completely silent in Sanctuary. That alone was odd. What made everything even more odd was the fact that no warriors, Skrull or Kree, were patrolling the corridors. From afar it looked as though the sacred realm of Thanos had been abandoned. Of course it hadn't, but it sure looked that way. Not even Thanos' top assassins were out, their daily training routines broken for the day. The only light came from The Chamber, a circular platform that overlooked the cosmos. Thanos sat in his floating throne and watched the stars, imagining all the species bowing to his supreme reign. All he needed were those dast Infinity Stones!

"Lord Thanos." The greeting came from Thanos' guard. "Your new project is here." Thanos smiled and beckoned the soldier to let the visitors in. Thanos had been expecting them for some time now.

"Hello Ruler of the Cosmos." A deep voice spoke. Thanos rotated his throne around to face the Kree man, and the peculiar girl standing next to him. The man wore a white lab coat and had dark glasses covering his eyes. He wore black gloves and black army boots. "We have completed the requested project." He continued.

Thanos eyed the girl standing next to the man. She stood tall and proud, her dark brown eyes staring up at Thanos. She was decorated in black armor, spikes protruding from her back. Her ebony black hair flowed freely behind her. "Is this your most powerful one?" He asked the scientist.

The scientist fidgeted. "She is one of the better projects we have worked on." Thanos leaned down to glare at the man.

"I asked for your most powerful weapon. Is this it or not?" Thanos watched as the man continued to fidget while the girl stood there, her gaze unwavering. "Answer me!" Thanos boomed. The scientist jumped slightly, the girl still didn't move.

"T-this one i-i-isn't t-the most p-powerful-l." The scientist stuttered. Thanos disapproving gaze made the scientist squirm with discomfort. The girl stood as still as a statue.

"Connect me to your superior." Thanos sat back and the scientist quickly pulled out an Inter-Dimensional Hologram Communicator or IDHC. A hologram appeared of another scientist, this one wearing a shiny name tag across the pocket side of his coat. The tag mentioned his name as Hijinx.

"Thanos." Hijinx greeted him. "What brings about this surprise meeting?"

"Your messenger here tells me that this, thing, that you have brought me is not the most powerful one you posses. Do I need remind you of our deal?" Thanos asked menacingly.

Hijinx remained cool and collected. "I remember the deal Thanos. Give you a warrior capable of much destruction and get protection from our enemy's, fail and be destroyed. We had just one complication though." Hijinx paused and Thanos nodded for him to go on. "It seems that three of our more powerful entities managed to escape. Only four are left."

Thanos thought this news over for a moment before turning to look at the girl that had been brought to him. She seemed like a worthy warrior, but what of the three escapees? "Which ones left?" Thanos asked Hijinx.

"Well they don't really have names." Hijinx explained. "They go by serial numbers, but most workers here had small names for them since no one can remember the numbers anyway.

"Who escaped!" Thanos shouted with impatience.

"Inferno, Tsunami, and Tornado." Hijinx said quickly. "The elements of fire, water, and air." He pointed at the girl in front of Thanos. "This is Titanium, the metal element. The other two in the facility that are completed are Earthquake and Electrical Storm. Their elements are planet and electricity. We are currently working on Black Hole, the space element." Thanos nodded, then turned to the girl.

"If you control every aspect of your element then demonstrate to me your skills." Thanos waved his hand and the stones lining The Chamber opened up. At least 200 soldiers flooded out, surrounding the girl. She stood completely still as her eyes swept over the enemy's surrounding her. Thanos watched her for a couple seconds before motioning to the lead soldier. A shot rang out. Then a metal spike flew through the air and made a kebab of 12 soldiers.

Guns fired as Titanium leaped over fallen bodies, their armor turning into a hovering armada of spikes trailing her. She slashed her way through the soldiers, gaining more weapons as they fell. She waved her hands and the metallic coating of The Chamber rose up to block any incoming shots. She barreled through the crowd of soldiers, their guns and knives proving useless against her metal shields and mind controlled weapons. Another wave of 200 soldiers came out, this time with water Thinking her metallic shields would weaken with rust the soldiers flung the water at her. The water was repelled by the magnetic charge of Titanium and drenched the soldiers, ruining their weapons. A few seconds later they were all dead. A final wave of 200 came out, this time bearing electrically powered swords. One soldier struck Titanium with the sword. A spike impaled him and the electricity from his weapon improved her metal, making it strong again. As the other soldiers tried to attack her, her spikes and shields became more powerful as each blow gave her more strength. Finally all the soldiers were dead, and The chamber was littered with 600 bodies, all dead within minutes.

Thanos looked down at Titanium with a bored gaze. She stood tall and proud once again in the middle of the battlefield, her shields lowered and her spikes attached themselves to her back, arms, and legs. She stood, an armored spiked shell of a girl amid a mass of death, and she smiled a slight twinge of a smile. Thanos liked this girl. "You are a formidable warrior." Thanos said finally to her. "I believe you might make a fine assassin to add to my army."

Hijinx smiled with pleasure. "She shall follow any orders you give her, and execute them to the fullest extent." Thanos nodded.

"What is your weakness girl?" he asked. Hijinx opened his mouth but Thanos held up a hand. "I want her to answer."

Titanium looked Thanos right in the eye, her dark brown pupils staring emotionless at him. "I can fight under any circumstances, against any weapon, versus any number of warriors, but I do not perform as well against fire. My metallic upgrades have allowed me to withstand water, planet, air, and cosmic, even allowing electricity to upgrade me, but fire is the only thing that will weaken me. It will burn away my metal and leave me with no with-stance against the heat and flames." Titanium explained. Thanos nodded as a thought formed in his head.

"So each elemental gets an upgrade from one and a weakness from another, don't they?" Thanos asked Hijinx. Hijinx looked shocked for a minute that Thanos had figured out the labs secret but quickly turned back into his calm, cool form.

"It forces them to become friends and enemy's with each other, they don't get a chance to choose their friends." Hijinx explained. "It causes rifts between each other, and limits them to one person they have to supposedly trust. That trust can then be manipulated, leaving them feeling like their the only one that has their own back. It's an isolation technique that works rather well in making suspicion against each other work in our favor." Hijin smiled. "With no experiment left to turn to they are forced to ally themselves with us, making them formidable warriors and excellent followers.

Thanos laughed. "I like the evilness I'm seeing from you Hijinx." He smirked. "Your warriors will be of great use to me," Thanos paused. "I would also like to have those three escaped elements."

Hijinx's grin faltered for a moment. Titanium shifted uneasily. Thanos had a feeling that there was not good news.

"Well you see," Hijinx began. He stopped then turned to Titanium. "Titanium, explain to Thanos what happened to Inferno, Tsunami, and Tornado."

Titanium nodded in acknowledgment. "They escaped the lab in the spur of the moment." She began. "If they had had time to plan they would have been caught. They escaped off of our planet and disappeared into the night effortlessly. Our ships pursued them, trying to weaken them but they kept going. We finally lost them when they slipped into the Reality Shield. We have been waiting for them to show themselves once more."

Thanos was furious.

"YOU LET THREE PRICELESS EXPERIMENTS ESCAPE INTO THE SACRED SHELTER OF THE ONLY INFINITY STONE I DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO!" Thanos shouted. Hijinx faltered and looked terrified.

"N-n-now w-we t-t-tried t-to keep th-them s-s-safe, b-but they d-d-didn't l-l-listen." Hijinx tried to explain. Thanos was still horribly angry with the scientist, but another thought made itself present.

"How did they even get into the Reality shield? No living thing can get past the high powered defenses." Thanos questioned. He knew that no living being could possibly have a chance of surviving the defenses set up by the Reality Stone. Even he couldn't get in, and he was Thanos! Nothing was more powerful then him!

"Well, they aren't exactly living things." Hijinx began. "They are just entities created in a lab. They are purely constructed of their element. What we did was, after we created the entities we went out and scoped out the Universe to find sentient beings that most matched the constructed DNA of that entity. We captured as many as we had access to, then stole their minds and fused them with their entity. When Inferno, Tsunami, and Tornado escaped we had not yet located where their DNA matches were. That's why they got into the Reality Shield."

Thanos processed this new information. So the girl standing in front of him was a normal being that had been brain washed and infused with a lab created entity made of pure metal? How scientifically entertaining. "How many DNA matches do you need yet to find?" He asked.

"Well, as you can see we have Titanium, Earthquake, Black Hole, and Electric Storm. Inferno, Tsunami, and Tornado picked a great time to escape, we had just found their matches." Hijinx paused. Thanos cleared his throat to urge him on. "Their matches are on Terra, we believe they are going to use the wisdom of Reality to find their matches and keep them safe from us. If we find their matches we can DNA locate them." Hijinx explained.

Thanos growled. "I thought they were brainless creatures?" He questioned.

"These three were the first ones we ever created, a lab technicality gave them small neurons that function somewhat like a brain." Hijinx guiltily explained. Thanos nodded and then dismissed the scientist. He had one of his guards lead Titanium to a room of her own.

 _So,_ Thanos thought. _Three powerful entities have become friends with the Reality Stone and are headed to Terra to find their DNA matches before the scientist who wants to turn them into living weapons for me does._ Thanos sighed. "Could this day get any worse."


	3. I Don't Think That's A Good Idea

**I Don't Think That's A Good Idea**

"Honestly, this is the worst plan you've ever had." Gamora hissed to Peter. "And you've had some pretty bad ones." The Guardians were currently sifting through the wreckage of their ship by the ever growing light of dawn. It was about 3 AM, freezing cold, and Peter was unable to do anything but sit and be annoying due to his arm.

"Okay look!" Peter whisper shouted. "I know that this isn't exactly the most opportune thing to happen to us, but c'mon!" He motioned to the wreckage. "The Reality Stone is in there somewhere and we have to find it so we can A.) Find out what that whole prophecy thing was about and B.) So it doesn't touch the surface of the planet and blow Earth to a crisp!"

Rocket rolled his eyes. "This planet aint' that great Quill. Fried Terra would be nice." Rocket smiled and licked his chops. Gamora tried not to smile. Peter looked just plain horrified.

"No!" He shouted. "No fried Terra!" The Guardians all shushed him. Peter went back to moping while they continued to search for the Reality Stone. There was no reddish glow emitting from the wreckage to help them locate it. Peter couldn't believe it, Nova Prime would have their heads for losing the Infinity Stone like this! The Guardians and the Nova Corps had recently found a way to get past the Reality Shield and obtain the Reality Stone. They went on a mission there and had successfully extracted it from what most races called it, "The Death Veil". Thanos knew nothing of it's disappearance. On the way back to Xandar though, they had been attacked by an alien species from nearby that worshiped the red glow of the stone. The Guardians ship had taken massive damage and had started hurtling downwards. An asteroid belt had caught them and flung them away from the Corps. Peter had the autopilot take them to the nearest planet, which had been Terra. On the way there the Infinity Stone had started spouting random sounds and noises, then random words, and then a prophecy about freaking elements! Now they were crashed on a non-alien friendly planet without the Nova Corps and with an Infinity Stone that had some waked out prophecy for them to figure out! At least the humans they had met so far were nice, but they were kids! It's not like they could help them much.

Peter ran the prophecy through his head again. _There shall come three, born of Earthen flesh, one with the spirit of a wildfire, one as docile as the water, another as sharp as the wind. they shall posses the elements which have brought them unto your presence and shall save the known realms from a disaster more then universal. So speaks The Elemental Prophecy!_

Peter could already guess what the others had though of the moment they saw their three rescuers. Alexi was spunky and her hair was a bold red. Courtney was quiet and thoughtful, not to mention the blue headband wrapped around her head. Harmony was sassy and sharp, plus she looked like she had just walked through a wind storm. Plus, they were all Terran. What were the odds though, that the Guardians would instantly meet the three in the prophecy? Peter sighed, who was he kidding. It was definitely possible.

As if his thoughts had summoned them, out of the house came a gothic looking Alexi. She had on the same black boots from last night, ripped jeans, a black shirt with a skull on it, a leather jacket covered in silver studs and spikes, the same lace choker as last night, and the same earrings too. She had on black lipstick and had black eye-shadow covering her eye up to her eyebrow. She was rubbing a flesh colored liquid on her face, a lot of it. She walked up to the Guardians and surveyed the wreckage.

"Why are you up so early?" Peter asked. "It's barely past 3 AM!" Alexi shrugged and sat down on a rock jutting high off the ground.

"I always get up early. It's a habit." She explained. Her voice was gruff and deep. It sounded harsh and Peter resisted the urge to shrink back away from her. Last night she had seemed nice, if not rough. Now she just seemed mean and uncaring. What was with this girl? The others seemed to notice it too but they didn't comment.

"What are you looking for?" Alexi asked. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees and her head on her hands. Peter was unsure how to answer. He couldn't tell her that they were looking for a stone that may or may not have mentioned her and her friends in a prophecy about saving the universe and that it had the power to actually destroy the planet, if not galaxy, they were currently on, could he?

Instead he said, "Just seeing if anything survived the crash." Alexi clearly didn't believe him.

"Well then let me help." She got up without waiting for an answer and went over to the wreckage, pulling a sheet of metal away from the pile. That girl was strong! The Guardians and Alexi continued to work on the Milano, without finding anything. Alexi must've figured out they were searching for something in particular and she seemed to be trying to piece together what it was. At around 4 AM Harmony came bouncing outside with a perky smile on her face.

"Hello y'all!" She called with enthusiasm. Her voice was deep but soft. Her hair was in a tight bun, and she had on high top sneakers, non-ripped jeans, and the shirt and sweater from last night. She came bounding down the hill towards them, her face bright and cheery. She had some mascara on, but otherwise she had almost no makeup. Compared to Alexi, Harmony looked like she didn't have a care in the world.

"Hey H-Cup." Alexi greeted her. Peter resisted the urge to wonder about the nickname. Harmony came over to where Alexi was crouched down and sat on the one slab of metal.

"What are all of you doing up so early?" She asked. Her question had been directed at the Guardians, Peter started making mental notes about these girls.

Alexi  
\- Wears a ton of makeup  
\- Dresses like a goth  
\- Has some spunk, must be fire  
\- Is mean and gruff  
\- Is always up early  
\- Knows a lot about her friends

Harmony  
\- Wears little to no makeup  
\- Is amazingly perky  
\- Looks years older then she really is  
\- Has sass, must be wind  
\- Knows that Alexi wakes up early  
\- Wakes up kinda early herself

"They're looking for something in the wreckage that's pretty important to them." Alexi said as she pulled away the wing of the Milano. Peter's suspicion that Alexi figured stuff out quickly was confirmed. Harmony bent down near Alexi and started helping her pull away metal. The Guardians were worried about two things. Either Alexi and Harmony found the stone and touched it, or they found the stone and it fell and touched the Earth's surface. Then there would be not only fried Terra but fried them!

"What's so important that you just have to be up this early?" Harmony asked. She sat down on one of the scrap piles that Alexi had made and stared at the Guardians. They shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. These girls were odd indeed.

"We are looking for a priceless artifact that we must protect." Drax answered. The two girls exchanged glances like they thought the Guardians were crazy. Then again, the Guardians probably were. This continued for a few more hours, the girls helping to lift random pieces of metal and the Guardians trying to learn more about them. Eventually they learned that Alexi and Harmony both went with Courtney to the nearby school, West View Middle.

Around 6 Courtney woke up and dragged herself outside to see the others. She had on the same outfit as the previous night and seemed to have just woken up. She tightened the bandanna around her head. Quill was getting an uneasy feeling about that thing. "How is everyone?" Courtney asked with a yawn. The Guardians shrugged, Alexi mumbled something, and Harmony gave a thumbs up.

"It's useless!" Rocket grumbled, turning around and sitting down. "We'll never find that krutakin stone!" Rocket angrily hit his fist on a piece of metal nearby. The piece shook and dislodged the side of the Milano. A large section of the ship sank lower as the metal crumbled down.

"Way to go Rocket." Quill stated. "Now my ship will take longer to fix!" Rocket growled.

"It won't take longer, it'll probably need a new wall though." Rocket stared mumbling about stronger metals and how weak the Milano was. Quill hung his head in his hands in defeat. They were never going to find the Reality Stone, Nova Prime would kill them! The other Guardians looked like they were giving up as well.

"Well at least we tried looking for this, whatever it is." Alexi said as she stood up and loudly cracked her back.

"It's called an Infinity Stone." Drax said. "And it's extremely powerful, so powerful it could destroy an entire galaxy." The three girls eyes' widened. It was hard to tell if they thought the Guardians were crazy, serious, or psycho. Peter hoped they didn't think the latter.

"Yea, well death stone or no death stone I'm starving so let's go and-" Harmony stopped talking as Alexi grabbed her arm.

"Look." She pointed at where the wall of the Milano had fallen away. There was a light red glow emitting from the wreckage. The Guardians' eyes widened in joy at seeing the red Infinity Stone. "That's your stone." Alexi and Harmony climbed swiftly over the destroyed ship and peeled the rest of the exterior wall away from the Infinity Stone.

"Guys I don't think that's such a good idea." Courtney warned as she went after them. Gamora reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the only undamaged containment units.

"Here!" She tossed it to Courtney. "Use that to pick up the stone." Courtney nodded and followed Alexi and Harmony. All three of them were able to maneuver through the mess of charred ship to reach the stone. Courtney gave the orb to Alexi who grabbed it and bent down near the stone.

"Just be careful that you don't-" Peter never got to finish his sentence. They should have warned the girls not to actually come in contact with the stone. They should have told them. All three got down and reached with their hands for the stone, and all three touched it.


	4. Infinity Stone MIA

**Infinity Stone MIA**

Thanos stood on his warship with a group of over 3,000 soldiers, all races from Kree to Saccarin, and one elemental, on their way to capture Reality. Thanos would not wait another minute to have three of the most powerful entities ever in his possession. Hijinx had promised that he had a way to make the three escapees docile until their DNA matches could be captured. Thanos hoped that he soon would be in control of his new warriors. Titanium was a strong warrior, truly, but Thanos was excited to see what the most powerful ones could do.

"Lord Thanos," One of his captains called. "The Death Veil approaches." Thanos did hope that people would stop referring to the Reality Shield as The Death Veil. Nothing, not even death, could stop Thanos from getting what he wanted.

"Get the army's ready." Thanos boomed his instructions. "We attack in V formations and target the weakest part of the shield." He eyed the swirling clouds of space dust that hinted that they were getting closer to a high gravity area. "Never stop shooting." Thanos growled. With that command the soldiers disembarked, Titanium up front, metal spikes flying around her. Thanos sat back and watched as his soldiers guns battered the fortifying wall of swirling gravity, rocks, and cosmic energy, all drawn to the surging power of the Reality Stone. Titanium flew as close to wall as any living being would dare before stopping where the energy was less congested. A group of soldiers followed and they all started to attack the wall with great force.

Titanium flung spike after spike at the shield, her face gritted in determination as she sent metallic blasts out of her hands that shook the place like sound waves. She dove into and away from the wall quickly, letting her metal bending powers grab a hold of the metallic forces in the air, pulling pieces of the wall away. The guns of the army continued to weaken the area she was mercilessly attacking. Then Thanos saw it, the wall shook, crumbled, and cracked. A piece of the shield fell away graciously and a gaping door was left. Titanium implanted her metal around the border to hold back the oppressing walls that were trying to mend themselves.

Thanos, still seated at his throne, moved forward, parting the army. He floated up to where Titanium was hovering, her hands outstretched to her sides, glowing with dark magic as she held up her metal. "How long will you last?" Thanos questioned her.

Titanium opened her eyes and looked him in the face. "Depends how long you'll take." Thanos resisted the urge to smile, this girl was all of his soldiers x500 in one. He turned and floated into The Reality Shield.

The whole area was awash with swirling hues of red, making the place glow darkly. There was no solid ground beneath him, it was just towering pillars of stone that were cracking at the foundation. Thanos continued along past swirling nebulae and portals across dimensions. He might just have to acquire this shield for a new base. He stopped at the foot of a tall staircase. At the top of the worn stairs was a glowing light, a swirling glowing light that was yellow and cream colors mixed together. A sweet song sang out as the figure swirled around the pedestal where Reality was kept.

Thanos stood and stepped up to the pedestal, he waved his hand and the cream light disappeared. It went swirling into the walls and the whole chamber was lit up as bright as one of Xandar's suns. Thanos smiled and reached out to grasp the stone, but his hand closed around open air.

The pedestal was empty.

Thanos was enraged.

"WHERE IS MY INFINITY STONE!" Thanos roared. The chamber shook with his fury and all his soldiers (minus Titanium) also shook. Thanos sat back in his chair and spun it around with anger. He floated back to his army who were trembling. Titanium stood as still as a statue still holding up the metal. Thanos fumed as he floated around his soldiers, yelling about the missing Infinity Stone.

"It must have been Nova!" Thanos shouted. "It had to have been Nova and those wretched Guardians of the Galaxy!" Thanos thought for a minute then summoned the Infinity Gauntlet. "If Reality is really out of the shield then I can finally track it's energy signal." Thanos said as a star-map appeared before him. A glowing red dot was hovering over a planet in the next galaxy. That was Reality.

"Sire." One of the guards spoke up. "That planet is under no restriction from the Nova Core. You would have no resistance in getting the stone." When Thanos looked down at the guard he quickly fell back in line with the others.

"That planet isn't owned by anybody." Titanium spoke up. "It's open for the taking." She glared at the star-map again. Then she smiled a faint smile. "You'll get an Infinity Stone, and three new warriors as well." Thanos checked the map again. Terra. Reality was on Terra. Thanos smiled.

"Necrocraft army." He called. "Ready your weapons. We travel to Terra to claim my Infinity Stone, capture my newest warriors, and destroy that putrid planet." A cheer went up from the army as they disembarked, Titanium letting her metal fall, and Thanos still smiling his evil smile.


	5. Another 'Brilliant' Idea

**Another 'Brilliant' Idea**

All three girls grabbed the Infinity Stone at once, but they didn't explode. They didn't burn in a fiery death, and they didn't die at all. Instead they picked it up and then looked at the Guardians who were staring at them open mouthed. "What?" Alexi asked. The Guardians couldn't believe it. They could hold it. They could hold the Reality Stone.

Just as Peter was about to make this exclamation out loud the Infinity Stone lit up red in the girls' hand's. Harmony screamed as the stone sent bright red vibrations and rivets up through their skin. Courtney tried to yank her hand away but the stone held all three in it's grasp. Alexi brought her other hand up and hit the stone with it. Sparks shot out and the Guardians jumped to the ground.

Gamora remembered the containment center that Courtney was holding. "Courtney!" She shouted. "Put the containment cube around it!" Courtney looked at the silver orb in her hand and started struggling to move her arm towards the stone.

"She won't get it on in time!" Rocket hollered as a wind kicked up and the girls eyes turned a light red color as the stone completely absorbed them. Just then the stone threw all three girls backwards and to the ground. The stone hovered in midair briefly before a red light came emitting out of it. Three figures floated out of the stone, no not figures, entities. One was twisting and churning, completely made of flames. Another was just hovering, made of flowing water. The last one was swirling around and around, made of swirling wind.

The three entities floated over as the Reality Stone started chanting the prophecy. _There shall be three, born from Earthen flesh, one with the spirit of a wildfire,_ the fire entity flung itself forward and entered into Alexi. She screamed as her whole body lit on fire. Courtney and Harmony lay paralyzed on the grass.

"Woah!" Peter yelled. He grabbed his element gun and fired a stream of water at Alexi. The water washed over the fire and steam rose but the fire didn't disappear. If anything, Alexi screamed louder.

"Quill I don't think that's helpin!" Rocket shouted.

"Isn't water supposed to destroy fire?" Quill shouted back over the rising wind.

"No duh genius!" Rocket hollered back. "But as ya can see, it didn't do nothin!"

Reality spoke again. _One as docile as the water,_ the water entity swooped down and enveloped Courtney. She didn't scream or writhe in pain, instead she closed her eyes and the sound of rushing water filled everyone's ears. On instinct, Peter fired a stream of fire straight at her. It turned to steam on contact.

"Idiot!" Rocket yelled. "When did you ever learn that fire beat water?" Peter whirled around to face Rocket and was about to say something smart back when Reality finished the prophecy all the Guardians realized it had been speaking.

 _Another as sharp as the wind,_ a harsh wind cut across and all the Guardians were thrown down, Peter's gun being flung out of his grasp. The wind entity shrieked through the air and dove at Harmony. A shrill cry as sharp as a knife on a blackboard cut through the air as Harmony was turned into a form of rushing, well, air.

All three girls, Alexi and Harmony shaking and screaming in pain while Courtney just hovered, were yanked up into the air. _They shall possess the elements that have brought them unto your presence and shall save the known realms from a disaster more then universal._ All three girls were suddenly aglow with the bright red light of the Reality stone. _So speaks the elemental prophecy!_ Reality fell from the sky and into the open containment unit that lay on the ground. All three girls also collapsed onto the ground.

The Guardians pulled themselves to their feet and ran over to them. "They look dead." Drax observed when the Guardians stood over the three.

"I bet we looked dead too after we held an Infinity Stone." Gamora reached down and closed the container that held Reality. Slowly the fire dispersed off of Alexi, Courtney was no longer made of water, and Harmony stopped the shrill shriek that the Guardians realized had been the force of the wind, not Harmony. The three girls sat up slightly and looked around like they were utterly confused.

"What in the name of Marvel just happened?" Harmony asked.

"Someone please tell me this is all just a weird dream that I'm having from eating too much pizza last night." Courtney whispered as she shakily got up. She stumbled briefly and Gamora quick steadied her. Courtney's skin was cold and clammy, like a fish out of water. Alexi and Harmony also struggled to their feet. Alexi actually jumped up like nothing had happened and then yanked Harmony up by her arm.

"Well, I guess we don't have to figure out what Reality meant by elemental possession anymore." Peter said. Gamora brought up her hand to cover his mouth but it was too late, the girls had heard him.

"Wait. You knew what would happen if we touched the stone!" Harmony yelled. Technically she just raised her voice up another octave but that seemed like yelling to the Guardians seeing how her normal voice was so deep.

"We did not exactly know specifics but yes, we kind of did have assumptions." Drax stated despite Peter's frantic hand motions for him to shut up. "The Reality Stone told us that we would meet three powerful elements. You three are supposed to save the universe." Drax continued. Peter had given up trying to keep Drax quiet. Rocket let his head fall into his paws with exasperation.

"Now I'm all for aliens and that stuff coming out of the sky and into my backyard." Courtney started, "But I draw the line at me and my crazy headed friends saving the universe all because we touched some glowey stone thing." Alexi and Harmony nodded in agreement.

"I'll gladly destroy the universe but I won't willingly save it." Alexi mumbled. Harmony rolled her eyes.

"Before anyone gets mad and starts destroying stuff let's first figure out what the heck happened when you touched that stone!" Peter's voice rose. "Does no one remember the fact that Alexi was on fire? Or that Courtney turned into some sort of water sprite! Or that Harmony was a freaking cyclone of wind?" Am I the only one that remembers that?" Peter turned to look at the others who stared at him in marvel at his sudden outburst.

Gamora nodded in agreement with Peter. "He's right. What exactly happened to you three?" Gamora asked the girls. They shrugged. That wasn't helpful.

"I don't know." Alexi started. "One moment were grabbing the red stone the next all I could see was-" Alexi didn't get to finish her sentence as a beat up old red truck pulled up in front of the house. The Guardians and the three girls all ducked behind what was left of the Milano. Except Alexi. Her body spazzed and lit up. Orange flames reaching for the sky.

"FIRE!" Courtney screamed.

* * *

Alexi stepped backwards behind the Milano in a panic. Her whole body was ablaze! Except nothing hurt. She didn't even feel the fire. Everyone was staring at her as she held up her hands in front of her face and examined them. Her skin was glowing a dull yellowish orange color, the outline of her body was sparks that threw hot flashes out, and her hair was a twisting mass of red fire. Her eyes glowed yellow and her pupils were swallowed up by the light. She was too bright to look directly at and you couldn't stand near her due to all the heat coming from the fire.

"Krutack!" Rocket shouted. "What the heck happened!" All the Guardians shushed him. A man had gotten out of the red truck and was plodding toward the house.

Alexi watched the man and then looked down. The grass around her had smoldered away. She looked back at the Guardians. "You idiots!" She whisper shouted. "I just turned into an inferno!"

"Yeah we noticed!" Peter hissed. He shied away from Alexi as her flames sputtered and sparked like hot coals. Her burning hair made crackling sounds like wood being burned in a fireplace.

"Why did she even spark up?" Rocket asked. Gamora glared at him.

"That pun wasn't necessary." She said. Rocket just snickered.

Courtney snapped her fingers. "I know why!" She exclaimed then quickly lowered her voice. She pointed at the truck. "Alexi's emotions made her spark up. I think her fire is a defensive maneuver!" Harmony nodded as well, her eyes lighting up as she realized what Courtney was talking about. The Guardians looked purely confused.

"Wait, why a _defense_ maneuver? Who is that?" Peter asked. Alexi was glaring at Courtney and Harmony as they opened their mouths to speak. They closed them instantly.

"It's none of your business." Alexi growled. She took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes. After a few seconds the fire fizzled out and Alexi returned to normal. She shook herself and her hair flung around wildly. "That's better."

"How did you do THAT!?" Peter asked in shock.

Alexi shrugged. "Emotions fuel this odd fire thing so I have to stay emotionless."

Harmony snickered. "Yeah, like that's hard for you to do." Alexi glared at her and a strand of her hair started turning into a flame. Harmony held up her hands in surrender. Alexi's hair turned normal again.

"C'mon." Courtney pointed up to the side door. "Let's get back inside, we'll figure this out later." The guy was pacing around the porch and it sounded like he was swearing under his breath. The Guardians followed the three girls as the slipped inside the side door and shut it silently.

"I am still confused on how she managed to control her fire so quickly." Drax said. The Guardians shrugged.

"Okay we need to first figure out what to do with them." Harmony pointed at the Guardians. "Court do you have any room in you basement?"

Courtney thought for a second. "Probably, but only two of them could stay down there."

"I can't take any of them." Harmony said. Alexi and Courtney looked at her.

"It's more dangerous for me to take any of them!" Alexi whisper shouted. "Poor Courtney can't keep all of these things here!" The Guardians winced at her harsh words.

"Look, I'll take one." Harmony said slowly. She pointed at Drax. "You can stay with me, Alexi you can take the tree and woodland animal." Rocket glanced up from where he was fiddling with a scrap of metal from the Milano.

"What'd you call me?" He growled. Harmony stepped back as Rocket bared his fangs.

"No time for this!" Alexi grabbed Groot and put him in a black and silver backpack she grabbed off the ground. Then she grabbed Rocket by his scruff and dropped him in the bag.

"Hey!" Rocket shouted as she zipped up the backpack, leaving just enough air to breathe. Alexi left the pack hang off her shoulder and walked towards the door. She held her one hand in a fist at her side, her nails digging into her skin. Rocket could be heard shuffling around in the bag.

"If you don't stop moving and making noise you'll end up dead!" Alexi hissed at him. Rocket stopped. Courtney opened the door and the man stood there. Without a word to either of the other two girls he grabbed Alexi roughly by the arm and dragged her out of the house, him plodding forward and her rushing to catch up, his grip still on her arm.

As Courtney shut the door Gamora turned to Peter. "I'm hoping that us splitting up isn't gonna turn into another one of your 'brilliant' ideas."


	6. New Discoveries of a Bad Sort

**New Discoveries of a Bad Sort**

Courtney led Gamora and Peter down the wooden steps by the side door into the dark basement below. Drax and Harmony had left shortly after Alexi, Rocket, and Groot had. Harmony said she didn't live that far away so they could walk there quickly and not be noticed. Peter was confused as there were no houses that looked lived in nearby, but he never was good with noticing details. Now though, in the dank smelling basement, Quill was aware of everything.

The walls and ceiling were made of concrete that radiated cold. Brown creaking shelves made of wood were layered on the floor. There was the distant sound of water dripping from the ceiling to the floor. Peter could have sworn that he saw a mouse or a rat or something running along through the shadows. The whole basement smelled of dust and peeling wallpaper.

"Not exactly home sweet home." Peter mumbled. Gamora hit him on the shoulder to keep him quiet. If Courtney heard the comment she didn't make one back.

"I don't have a clue what we're gonna do about any of this," Courtney started. "But Alexi, Harmony, and I will figure it all out-" Peter held up his hand to cut her off.

"Don't worry about anything Courtney. The Guardians of the Galaxy will figure this out." Courtney smiled lightly then turned and walked up the steps.

"Just make yourselves as comfortable as you can." She called down. Then the door to the basement was closed partway to hide them from view but not completely lock them in. Gamora went and pulled on the chain hanging down and a single light bulb brightened the room slightly.

"I'm getting a very haunted house vibe from this place." Peter said as he brushed a cobweb off his shoulder. Gamora didn't respond, her eyes were tracing the outlines of all the boxes stacked against the walls. "G?" Peter asked. Gamora walked over to the wall and pulled an old box, falling apart at the edges. On it were the names **Courtney, Harmony, and Alexi** , written in black marker. "How did you?" Peter asked.

"I'm a master assassin, Quill." Gamora replied. "I've been known to find things that people want hidden." She opened up the box and a mini dust storm covered both of their faces. Peter started hacking and coughing while Gamora just brushed the dust off of her and pulled the box under the light.

Inside the box was an old photo album, what looked like a book with no title, a couple newspaper clippings, and a few strands of black hair in a plastic bag. "What is this?" Peter asked as he reached in and grabbed the photo album. Gamora pulled out the book, opened it, looked at it for a few minutes then threw it at Peter.

"I can't read Terran Quill." Gamora reminded him. She took the album and started flipping through it leaving Quill to pick up the flung book. He opened it up to see it was covered in scrawled writing. It was a diary. The name on the inside page was written in beautiful calligraphy that Quill struggled to make out. He managed to finally read it and stared at Gamora.

"This is Courtney's diary." Quill said. Gamora laid down the photo album. It was filled with pictures of the three girls. Gamora pointed at Courtney in the pictures. She had long shining black hair, like the strands in the bag. The eerie feeling Quill had gotten upon seeing the bandanna wrapped around Courtney's head returned. In the pictures Courtney was smiling and her overly pale skin was a fresh sand color. She looked a lot happier then she did now. Harmony and Alexi did as well. Harmony's eyes didn't look haunted and Alexi was actually smiling.

"When was this picture taken?" Quill asked. Gamora flipped over the picture.

"It says 8/11/2013." Gamora read.

Quill checked the international clock that Nova had given them. It was currently October 15th 2016. "That was three years ago." Quill said. The back of the picture also read 'Courtney age 9, Alexi age 10, Harmony age 8.'

Quill started flipping through Courtney's diary a little, noting her great handwriting and thanking the stars that there was no more calligraphy. Then Quill stopped skimming as he noticed an entree. It was dated June 17th 2016. "This entry wasn't put in too long ago." Quill showed it to Gamora. It had caught his interest because Courtney's normally pristine handwriting was sloppy and all chopped up, like she had been rushing or not paying attention to her words.

"What does it say?" Gamora asked a little annoyed. Quill started reading.

 _I can't believe this happened. It's all so surreal I can't even piece it together. One moment a happy life mostly free of worry and now...now I'm dying and my Dad isn't even here to see me. He won't know I'm dead until he gets back in two years. He won't know, and the fact that he didn't know will kill him. Who will take care of Harmony and Alexi when I'm dead? Not my parents, they don't know what those two are going through. My mom could care less about what friends I keep, she's still in shock about the news and I don't think she'll ever snap out of it. They doctors say it's too late. The cure won't help, it wasn't caught in time. I'm dying of brain can-_

Peter stopped reading. The word on the page was the word that had ruined his life so long ago. Gamora stared at him questioningly, wondering why he stopped reading. He took a deep breath and finished.

 _I'm dying of brain cancer and there's nothing anyone can do._

Peter set the journal down. Now the pale skin and bandanna around her head made sense. Courtney was dying. Courtney was dying of cancer. Gamora's eyes widened when Peter said 'cancer' and she realized why he had momentarily paused. Gamora reached back into the box and pulled out the bag with the hair in it.

"Courtney preserved her hair." Peter said solemnly.

"What does she mean by 'who will take care of Alexi and Harmony when I'm dead'?" Gamora asked. Peter reread the words and his expression became puzzled.

"Yeah, that is odd." He agreed. Peter started flipping backwards through the diary trying to find some mention of something about Alexi or Harmony. Gamora continued looking through the box and pulled out the newspaper clippings.

"Hey Quill you should see this." Gamora called.

Peter at the exact same time said "G, you'd better hear this." Gamora showed him the news cutouts that had a picture of Harmony splashed across the front page. Peter set down the diary entry that was written by a frantic Courtney about Harmony. Peter read both out loud and instantly both him and Gamora felt sorry for Harmony and Courtney. They were so young yet they had to go to all this.

"Well at least out of all of us Drax went with Harmony." Peter commented when he was done reading. "He'll understand the most what it's like to have a dead family."


	7. Backpacking

**Backpacking**

"I just want ya to know that I completely resent this idea." Rocket growled at Alexi. In response she slightly kicked her backpack, which Rocket was in.

"If you don't shut up you're gonna be skinned alive!" She hissed under her breath at him. "Plus, you've already made your opinion on this matter very clear!" Rocket grumbled under his breath and tried to get more comfortable inside the stuffy backpack. It didn't help that almost everything inside the backpack was hard and jabbing at him.

 _Why does one girl need so many flarkin different makeup products?_ Rocket thought angrily as yet another makeup kit jabbed his back. Groot had his small arms wrapped around him as the backpack jostled when the truck hit a small ditch.

"Why were you late?" The man asked softly. Rocket poked his head out of the bag slightly to look at the Terran that was driving the truck. He was a well muscled man with light almost warm eyes and a smile on his lips. His hair was a dusty color and clung to his head like it was glued there. He didn't necessarily look unkind but he gave off that vibe of someone about to boil over. _He's probably her father._ Rocket thought.

"Why do you care?" Alexi answered the man's question. He stiffened and then turned to glare at her, his light eyes turning harsh and cold. His smile curled into a sneer and the next thing Rocket knew his hand was off the steering wheel and lashing across Alexi's face. Rocket flinched as he heard the skin on skin contact and stole a glance at Alexi. She was holding the side of her face where a black and blue hand-print was forming.

"Answer my question!" This time his voice was loud and harsh like someone cracked a whip in the air. Groot started shaking in his pot and Rocket slowly crawled back farther into the backpack. _Well I guess that explains why she didn't want to take any of us._ Rocket thought. All of a sudden the millions of makeup containers made sense. She was trying to hide bruises and hand-prints and whatever else happened to her face.

"It's none of your business why I was late." Alexi growled. From the sound of her voice Alexi was facing the window. _Good choice kid._

The man laughed and the rest of the ride was silent, only broken every so often by them hitting a ditch in the road.

* * *

When they finally arrived at Alexi's place Rocket dared to peek out of the backpack. The house was actually a shack that was leaning to one side. A broken gravel path led to the front steps that looked ready to cave in. The windows were broken in places and a tangled web of weeds was the bare remnant of a garden. Some smoke puffed out of the chimney and the front door opened with a spooky creak. In the doorway stood a girl that looked a little older then Alexi with long brown hair and perfectly tanned skin. She had light makeup on and as Alexi walked past, the girl shoved her hard from behind. Alexi stumbled but kept walking as the girl laughed.

Rocket lept out of the backpack the moment Alexi set it down and shut the door of what was apparently her room. The walls were wooden and bare, the frosted window had spiderweb cracks running up the middle and besides a few random items laying around the only furniture was a small bed and a dresser.

"What the heck type of family is that?!" Rocket asked as Alexi sat down on her bed and pulled out a thing of skin color liquid to start applying to her face. She shrugged.

"It's not a family." She mumbled. When Rocket stared at her, his eyes pleading for answers, she set down the makeup container. "Okay look, those two are my stepdad and older stepsister Veronica. My mom had an affair with another man, my dad, while she was married to my stepdad. When he found out, which was when she was pregnant with me, he threw her out but got sole custody of me and my stepsister. They both hate me though so yeah sometimes they'll hit me." Rocket scoffed under his breath. "Fine, they always hit me and Veronica kinda makes sure that everyone at school hates me." Alexi finished.

"Why do you stay here?" Rocket asked. "Why not go and live with Harmony or Courtney? They'll probably be happy to help you out." Before Alexi could answer a loud voice shouted up the stairs.

"Alexandria!" Her stepdad yelled. Alexi winced. _Birth name._ Rocket guessed. _Alexi is her nickname._

"What?" She yelled back down to her stepdad.

"You have a call from the walking zombie." Came the reply. Alexi's face twisted in rage.

"DON'T YOU EVER CALL COURTNEY A ZOMBIE AGAIN!" She screamed. Rocket's ears involuntarily fell down against his head and Groot shrunk down in his pot. Damn that girl had a set of pipes! Alexi stormed down the stairs with a muttered "stay here" to Rocket and Groot.

"I am Groot!" Groot wailed in distress.

"Yeah I know this is bad, I don't see how it could get worse though." Rocket bit his tongue as the words left his mouth. "Oh krutack! Why do I always say stupid shit like that! Now the universe is gonna send some extra bad luck our way just to get a good laugh outta us!" Groot snickered. "Oh you think that's funny?" Rocket asked.

"I am Groot." Groot shook his head quickly. Rocket's bristling fur was just calming down when Alexi came barreling back into the room. "I am Groot!" Groot shrieked in shock as Alexi grabbed both him and Rocket, hurling them back into her backpack.

"Ow! Hey!" Rocket shouted as Alexi zipped the bag almost completely shut. "What's going on?" Rocket asked.

"Pipe down." Alexi hissed as she threw the bag on her back. Then Alexi took off running down the stairs. Rocket was flipped around and around with each step as the backpack bounced harshly against Alexi's back. When the door to the house slammed shut Rocket had a rolling case of nausea. Alexi flipped her leg over something and Rocket heard wheels running over gravel as he started moving.

"Where are we going?" Rocket shouted. He stuck his snout out of the backpack to get a better look at what was going on. The world zoomed by in quick bursts of color and shapes and Rocket felt his fur flying around wildly. "What happened?" He asked again, this time louder to be heard over the suddenly whirling wind.

"There's been an accident!" Alexi called back. "Drax and Harmony are gone!" Rocket let out a hiss. _M_ e _and my big flarkin mouth!_


	8. The Warrior, the Elemental, and Thanos

**The Warrior, the Elemental, and Thanos**

Neither Drax nor Harmony knew exactly where they were at the moment, but they both didn't care. Harmony was freaking out over the fact that she had just been abducted by aliens and one girl made almost entirely of metal, while Drax was thrilled that at this very moment he was being brought to Thanos. He might've forgotten to take into account the fact that they were surrounded by almost a hundred guards, but a guy can dream can't he?

"Move along maggots!" The girl of metal shouted at them from up front. Harmony flinched at her sharp tone but kept her head down and moving. Drax though, felt the need to speak up.

"A maggot is a soft-bodied legless larva, especially that of a fly, found in decaying matter on Terra." He stated. "We are not soft-bodied legless larva and only she is of Terra, not I." Harmony felt like punching Drax as the girl with _freaking spikes coming out of her back_ turned towards them with a not so nice expression on her face. With heavy footsteps that rang like gunshots across the odd space hallway, she marched forward and stopped in front of Drax. The girl barely came halfway up his chest but Drax looked uncomfortable under her glaring gaze.

"I did not give you permission to speak, did I." The girl hissed. The way she said those words made it seem more like a declaration then a question. Yet, Drax couldn't resist opening his big mouth could he?

"I do not need the permission of a small creature of metallic armor to speak!" He boomed. Harmony felt like melting into the darkness of the nearby corner like she always did at school, but at least 50 guards stood in her way. Metallic girl looked a little shocked for about 1.5 seconds before her composure hardened into that of, well, metal. Solid, steely, cold, unbreakable.

"You will obey my words!" Metallic girl shrieked. The floor groaned and heaved upwards underneath her till she was towering at least 5 inches above Drax's head. Now he had to crane his neck backwards to look at her. Spikes flew off her back and aimed at Drax's neck, posing just millimeters away from skewering him. "Now listen closely big man!" She shouted. "You are going to walk silently down this hall to your fate beneath the feet of the great and powerful Thanos! Another word out of you and I will not hesitate to remove your windpipe from your throat, do I make myself clear!" Drax nodded and Metallic girl lowered herself to the ground, her spikes staying by Drax's neck.

 _So not only is she made of metal but she can control metal as well!_ Harmony thought as more fear spread through her body. _Grand, just freaking grand._ The group continued down the hall until they reached what looked like a door engraved into the stone. Metallic girl rapped on the door and it lifted upwards allowing for Harmony, Drax, three guards, and the girl to walk through. The door shut behind them but Harmony barely noticed. They were standing outside, in space. _They were standing outside in outer space._ Harmony expected her airways to close off and her vision to go dark but instead she took a breath of oxygen.

 _Since when is there oxygen in outer space?_ Harmony thought. _Then again, since when do odd stones that come from alien spacecrafts end up turning you and your friends into odd creatures of elements. Guess today's an impossible day, or someone put drugs into my food last night._ Harmony was 75% sure this wasn't some odd drug induced nightmare, but a small 25% wasn't too sure at this point.

"Well I see you found one." A deep commanding voice boomed. Harmony snapped herself out of her thoughts and stared at the purple alien dressed in gold before her. He sat on a floating throne of rocks above them, the stars and galaxies framing the background. The guards pushed her and Drax into the center of a giant circular stone platform that made up most of the area. Rocks in odd shapes floated away from the platform and jutted up and inwards from the sides, making small fractured areas of shelter around the open space.

"Yes Thanos, this here is one of your desired elementals." Metallic girl said. She grabbed Harmony's arm fiercely and dragged her closer to the man in the chair. "This is the controller of wind, Tornado." Metallic girl thrust Harmony forward suddenly and she stumbled slightly.

"Thank you Titanium, you have been extremely helpful, thus far. Find me the other two, Inferno and Tsunami." Purple man said. He waved his hand dismissively and then stared down at Harmony with an evil seeming glint in his eyes.

"Wait, what is all this nonsense about elementals?" Harmony asked. "I've been hearing about this nonstop all day and I want to know what's going on." Drax, Titanium (Which Harmony noted was a good title for her), and this Thanos guy all were watching her. "One moment I'm sifting through chunks of spaceship and the next I'm grabbing a red stone of sorts and then I'm made of wind the next moment! To top it all off there's this sort of prophecy around me and my two friends, one of which I watched burst into living flames and the other who turned into a freaking waterfall, and now I'm being dragged into outer space before an alien who expects me to understand what the hell happened to me when I held that stone. Well I don't know!"

"You held the Reality Stone." Thanos murmured with a look of shock. "You unlocked your power already." His voice got louder. "Those stupid entities hid in the stone and then transmitted into you when you held the stone!" His voice shook the platform. Harmony tried to step backwards but two guards pushed her forward again. Thanos leaned down closer to Harmony. "You girl, deserve no answers. Now tell me, where are the other two elements?" Harmony felt like a small speck of dust under his gaze but she refused to give away her friends. Heck, she wasn't even 100% sure where they exactly were!

"The girl does not know of such things Thanos!" Drax's voice boomed. Thanos looked up as if he just now saw that Drax was there. "I on the other hand," Drax continued. "Have a small debt to settle with you!" Harmony felt herself gently step away from the guards flanking her. Either Drax was purposefully giving her a chance to escape or he was a moron. She was't entirely sure which one though.

"And who are you?" Thanos asked with a bored expression on his face. Then he smiled. "Oh, I remember. You're one of those putrid Guardians of the Galaxy, the group of misfit bandits that stopped the destruction of Xandar, and killed Ronan." Thanos laughed heartily. "You're Drax the Destroyer, you were on a quest of vengeance against Ronan, for what, I'm not sure."

"Ronan killed my family, by your order. Ronan has already answered for his crimes, and now you will as well." Drax threatened. Harmony came to the conclusion that Drax was indeed a moron. With a battle cry leaving his mouth Drax drew two swords from his pockets and slashed at the guard holding him before dodging the spikes at his neck and charging to Thanos. Harmony got knocked to the side as her two guards charged Drax. Thanos sat back and actually seemed to be enjoying himself as five more guards rushed Drax.

All of a sudden Harmony felt anger welling up inside of her. Anger at Thanos for not telling her about the apparent prophecy she was a part of. Anger at Titanium for being so powerful yet so evil. Anger at that stone for giving her these powers. Anger at Alexi for wanting to see what had crashed in the backyard. Anger at Courtney for wanting to help these aliens. Anger at the Guardians for ever crashing on Earth. Anger at the guards for following this guy's orders. Anger at herself for being so useless to help her friend. Anger at the whole universe for throwing everything it could possibly think of on top of her shoulders. Anger, just pure raw anger at everything and everyone. Anger that was broiling in her stomach, burning in her lungs, clawing up her throat, and lunging out of her mouth in the form of a wailing banshee.

It was then that Harmony realized that she was actually screaming. And hovering in mid-air. And _made of swirling wind._

"Tornado." Thanos whispered in awe. Harmony screamed louder as her rage overflowed. He wasn't even terrified of her! He wasn't even in fear of what she could do! Did he think he could control her or something! Did he think she could be tamed like a pet! Harmony or Tornado or whoever she was, no one could control her.

Harmony let out a screech that shook the platform, throwing everyone to the floor. With a fling of her hands she sent all the guards fling over the edge into the vast space beyond. More guards came running out only to have their bodies flung away with her swirling winds. Titanium threw a metallic spike at her but Harmony deflected it and the spike struck Thanos chair. Then Harmony grabbed Titanium in her winds and flung her across the platform into an outcropping of rocks. Drax bashed in the heads of some still firing guards. With a final whisk of her hand Harmony threw Thanos chair out of the sky and to the stone platform down below.

"You are definitely one powerful elemental." Drax called to her. Harmony felt a smile spread over her face as the anger melted away. As quickly as the winds had come over her they were gone and Harmony was laying on the ground feeling jet-lagged. Drax helped her up. "We must go before reinforcements come." He mentioned. Harmony nodded wordlessly and the two took off running. They leaped over fallen bodies and made it out of the chamber as more guards rounded the corner behind them.

"You will pay for this elemental girl!" Thanos called. "You can not run forever!"

"I don't think they're chasing us." Harmony panted as the two continued down the hall they had been paraded through just minutes before. "Let's find some way to get out of here." It wasn't until they smashed headfirst into two bodies that they realized they hadn't slowed down. They also realized they had hit two _floating_ bodies, one made of roaring fire, the other of flowing water.


	9. How Alexi and Courtney Got To Space

**How Alexi and Courtney Got To Outer Space**

"What do you mean you can't get a Nova ship down here?!" Peter yelled into the com unit. With the Milano in ruins Nova was their last chance of rescuing Drax and Harmony from whoever had grabbed them. Courtney was pacing back and forth, her hands knotted behind her back. She was the one who had seen the ship that had grabbed their two friends. Alexi, Groot, and Rocket were on their way from Alexi's house but as of the moment they had no way to get to outer space and follow that ship. Unless Rocket could work some sort of miracle on the wreaked Milano they needed Nova Prime's help.

"I mean exactly what I said Quill." Denarien Dey said from the com. "Nova Prime can't waste valuable resources by sending a ship on an incognito mission down to Terra." Peter sighed in exasperation. Apparently Nova Prime wasn't in the mood to fix their screw up today.

"Can't you at least try?!" Peter cried out. He was done with being nice, it was time to plead and beg. "C'mon Dey! Drax and Harmony are in trouble! The Milano can't fly; it's one wing is completely bashed in, the front is exploded, the sides are falling apart, the gear only slightly works, and I bet you 200 units that the engine is fried." Peter took a deep breath to calm down. "Then again, that's only what we can see, who knows how much internal damage there is!"

"Okay Quill look. I know that right now things aren't looking to hot for you guys, but you need to understand what's going on up here as well." Dey said in what was most likely the calmest voice he could muster at this point.

Now Peter was intrigued. "What's going on up there?" He asked.

"It's Thanos trouble." Was the reply. Peter's blood ran ice cold. Dey continued. "We think that Thanos is enlisting the help of new soldiers and somehow the Reality Stone plays a part in all of it. It was reported that he was seen at the Reality Shield with a girl made entirely of metal. Now our reports from Sanctuary are picking up signals that another entity is approaching. We believe that Thanos is in partnership with a scientist who of recently has been under Nova suspicion of taking and turning kids with specific DNA mutations into elemental fighters. These entities are powerful beings and somehow the Reality Stone is involved in all this. My thoughts involve an odd disturbance awhile back near the shield when we thought something had gotten in. It was around that time that the science facility we had been watching, which is conveniently located out of Nova range, turned into an uproar of constantly moving ships and weaponry enhancements."

Peter just kept nodding his head as his mind struggled to comprehend what Dey was saying. "So, to clarify, you think that Thanos and a scientist are creating warriors with immense power and now the Reality Stone, the only Infinity Stone that we don't have in safety, is involved." Peter relayed. He heard Dey cough out a reply that was a cross between 'yes' and 'yeah'. "Well isn't that just great!" Peter shouted with a feel of defeat as the situation sunk in. He told Dey about Alexi, Courtney, and Harmony and how they touched the stone and became the three entities.

"This is not good." Dey whispered. "If our two accounts of this line up the way I think they do then Thanos just got your Guardian and the wind entity." A pause was heard from Dey's end. "Okay look Quill, I think I can get Nova Prime to help, only because this now involves Thanos hence it now involves us." Peter wanted to jump for joy, but instead he kept it professional, internally promising to hug Dey the next time he saw him.

"Thanks so much Dey, you have no idea how much this helps us out." Peter thanked him. Just then Alexi pulled up on a bicycle and Rocket jumped out of her backpack looking like he was about to hurl. Groot was then gently lifted out by Alexi and set on the ground. Peter hung up the call and repeated to the others the information he had just been given.

"So these things that possessed us when we touched the stone are from a science lab?" Alexi asked skeptically. Peter nodded. She sighed. "Great, just great. Crashing ships from outer space I can believe, aliens I can believe, being possessed by some weird fire sprite I can even believe, but this crazy science lab and mad titan thing with alien governments and shit I cannot believe!" She shouted.

"We've all seen some crazy things in our days, this is oddly not the craziest thing to ever happen to us." Courtney said quietly. Peter thought she was still in shock from seeing the ship lift Drax and Harmony off. Now that he knew about her cancer though he was worried that maybe going into outer space on a rescue mission wasn't the best thing for her.

"The Nova ship should be here in 15 minutes so we better start working on a plan for what we'll do when we get up there." Gamora said. Peter nodded.

"Good plan Gamora. Does anyone have any ideas?" He asked. His question was met by blank looks.

"You guys are the ones who are from outer space, don't you have any weird alien tricks up your sleeves or something?" Alexi asked kind of sarcastically.

"Our only 'alien trick' was that hunk of junk Quill calls a ship." Rocket growled, making quotation marks around the words alien trick. Quill rolled his eyes and ignored Rocket's remark. "Plus," Rocket continued. "Quill ain't one for making elaborate plans right before doing something crazy."

"Who said we needed an elaborate plan?" Alexi asked. "We get up there, we find Harmony and tattoo guy, we kick some alien ass. Sounds easy to me!"

Gamora sighed. "You've never seen or even heard of Thanos, nor have you ever witnessed or seen the things he can do." She looked Alexi right in the eye. "We have a greater chance of getting slaughtered then making it out of there in one piece." Courtney looked terrified but Alexi just shrugged.

"I'm cool with either outcome." She remarked. Courtney, Rocket, and Groot seemed to be the only one's not surprised by this comment.

"I agree with Alexi." Peter spoke up suddenly. "We get up there and fight our way through. I mean c'mon, it's not the first suicide mission we've been on!" He smiled at the still unswayed Gamora. She rolled her eyes.

"With that logic you're going to get us killed Peter Quill." She said. After a few more minutes of silent thought Gamora finally relented. "Fine." She said annoyed. "We'll follow you're 12% of a plan."

"12%?" Courtney laughed. "Not even!" It's 5% at best!" Everyone cast her a glaring look and she shut up. After a couple seconds Courtney asked, "Alexi, what are you doing?" Everyone looked at Alexi who seemed to be trying an odd form of meditation.

"I'm trying to channel that odd fire power thing." She answered. "I'd guess it would be helpful in this situation."

Rocket scoffed. "When is a giant fire spirit on our side a bad thing?" He asked sarcastically. Alexi shot him a look and continued doing her weird meditating.

"Ya know," Courtney interjected. "The last time that thing came out it was when you were scared." Alexi whirled around and Courtney flinched backwards.

"I don't get scared!" Alexi shouted at her. Her pupils enlarged, nearly turning her eyes completely black and her hand curled into a fist at her side. Alexi stepped backwards and away from the cowering Courtney and punched a nearby tree, leaving a nice dent in the side. Groot winced in his pot.

"Well apparently she gets angry." Peter whispered to Gamora. Gamora in turn kicked his shin rather hard. The sharp jab sent Peter pitching forward to grab his bruised leg. With oh so perfect balance he fell in the process and reached out to grab the nearest support. Unluckily for him the nearest support was Alexi's shoulder. When Peter's arm wrapped around her shoulders and his other arm grabbed her waist, she reacted instantly. Alexi's body convulsed and she threw out her fist, lashing Peter across his face. As he stumbled backwards her body let out another convulsion as her gaze drifted far off, and her whole body erupted into flames.

"Holy shit!" Rocket shouted launching himself and Groot backwards. Courtney stumbled over her own two feet as Alexi lunged at Peter. He let out a high pitched scream as her fire licked at his clothing. Alexi's eyes glowed with malice as she lashed out a hand that left a burn mark along Peter's chin. He grabbed for his element gun but Alexi's fire burned through his holster and the gun fell and slid along the ground. Peter looked around for a way out but found instead that his back was now to the house with Alexi and her smoldering fire blocking any escape.

Alexi moved closer to Peter until he had to turn his head to avoid getting scorched. Her flames danced around him as her glowing eyes stared him down. "Don't EVER touch me again Peter Quill." Her voice sounded like crackling embers. Peter nodded mutely, his face red from the extensive heat flowing off of her. Alexi stepped back and slowly her fiery form dissipated until she was normal again. Everyone stared at her watching to see what she'd do. Alexi just turned away from Peter and grabbed her backpack off the bike. "Well c'mon everyone, that alien ship won't hover there forever." Alexi pointed upwards at the Nova starship materializing above them.

"I've never been more happy ta see the cops before in my life." Rocket whispered as he grabbed Groot. A beam of light came down and surrounded Alexi, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot. They were pulled up into the ship while another beam came down and grabbed Peter and Courtney. When everyone was safely inside the Nova ship it took off, going hyperspeed into orbit.

"This is so cool!" Courtney shouted with glee. She threw her arms around Alexi in a big hug, a large smile splitting across her face. Alexi tensed by let Courtney hug her. Just as Courtney released her from the bearhug Dey approached them. As he opened his mouth to speak Peter gave Dey his own bearhug.

Dey didn't even look shocked at Peter's sudden hug. "Quill." He said. Peter released him from the hug and just smiled sheepishly.

"Just wanted to say thanks for not leaving us on Terra." Quill explained. Dey just shook his head and sighed.

"Anyway," he began. "While we approach Sanctuary I want to talk to you two elementals." He looked at Alexi and Courtney. "Now which one of you is fire and which one is water?"

Alexi stepped forward, her arms crossed in front of her. "I'm fire," she angled her head to Courtney, "and she's water. Our friend Harmony is wind."

Dey nodded. "Okay, I have some more information on your entities. Our Nova hackers got into the systems of the planet where the lab that built your entities is." Dey pulled up a hologram of what looked like a common warehouse. "This lab is run by a notorious scientist known only as Hijinx. He has been caught before experimenting with the very forces of nature. Now it seems he has finally perfected his craft."

The hologram changed to show seven hovering spirits. One was made of swirling fire, another flowing water, another whooshing wind, another hard metal, another growing vines, another crackling electricity, and finally one that seemed to reflect space. "These are the seven elements of life; fire, water, wind, metal, planet, electricity, and cosmos." Dey explained. "Each entity gets an upgrade and a downgrade from another entity."

The hologram changed to show a chart of some sort. It was an downgrade chart. "As you can see," Dey explained. "Water downgrades fire, fire downgrades metal, metal downgrades planet, planet downgrades cosmos, cosmos downgrades electricity, electricity downgrades wind, and wind downgrades water." Another chart appeared, upgrades. "Here for upgrades; water upgrades planet, planet upgrades wind, wind upgrades fire, fire upgrades electricity, electricity upgrades metal, metal upgrades cosmos, and cosmos upgrade water."

"So Harmony's power would upgrade my power but Courtney's would downgrade mine." Alexi said watching the chart. "I actually have an advantage against the metal girl." She whispered.

"Well an advantage is always helpful." Courtney summarized. She glanced down at her hands. "I wonder how to activate my power." Alexi was pacing back and forth across the ship, hands knit behind her back in concentration. The tips of her hair were sparking with flames and her eyes had taken on a fiery yellow glow. The Guardians watched as Courtney started concentrating and Alexi continued to pace.

A few more minutes passed of this before Gamora glanced out the window. "We're here." She muttered, drawing her sword. Everyone watched as the stone structure of Sanctuary rose up before them. Hovercraft surrounded it, numbering in the thousands. They looked like small black dots from the distance the Nova ship was but the Guardians knew the high powered weaponry that was stored underneath that black steel. The golden Nova ship couldn't just waltz right up to the front door and expect to be let in, especially since Thanos had the people he wanted in his grasp.

Just then the ship shook slightly and slowly the outside world seemed to dim. The ship had just cloaked. "We'll sneak in like this and park on one of the empty hangars around back." Dey explained. The Nova ship flew with precision closer to Sanctuary, trying not to disrupt any of the asteroids that served as a blockade against intruders. "This is just a little too easy." Dey mentioned as they slunk past the surrounding ships. Peter watched each one they passed and started to get an uneasy feeling. Dey was right, this was too easy.

Gamora seemed to sense something was off and dropped into a battle stance. "I don't like this." She hissed. Her slender finger pointed at the cockpits of the disappearing ships. Peter and the others strained to see what it was that Gamora saw. Peter couldn't see anything. Then it hit him, he couldn't see anything or anyone, the cockpits were empty!

Everyone else noticed it too. "Where're all the soldiers?" Rocket growled, drawing his gun. Before anyone could answer one of the ships exploded. The cloak fell down and everyone was sent tumbling with the ship. Emergency lights flashed from where the ship had been struck. Just as Dey started trying to reorient them another blast sent them hurtling back into the middle of the bomb ships. More explosions threw them around like rag-dolls as the ship started losing altitude. The Nova ship and all of it's passengers fell in a downward spiral towards Sanctuary.

When they crashed it was in a firestorm. the ship exploded, much like the Milano had earlier, and all of them were left stuck underneath heavy shafts of metal. Coughing was heard as smoke filled their lungs and dust made their eyes sting. Heavy footsteps, like that of armored guards, approached. The sound of guns being drawn was a familiar sound in all of their ears. They were surrounded.

"We're gonna need a new plan." Alexi whispered.


	10. I'm Done Listening To Peter Quill

**I'm Done Listening To Peter Quill**

The guards had pulled the rubble of the Nova ship off of the Guardians, Dey, Alexi, and Courtney. They had been cuffed and now all of them were being marched down the halls of Sanctuary towards their inevitable doom. At least, that's how Courtney saw it. All the guards were decked out in metallic armor with helmets covering their faces entirely. They carried large guns that were taller than Courtney and possibly heavier. Her eyes darted around, scoping out the area like Alexi had taught her. All escape routes were either closed off, heavily guarded, or invisible. The dim light made it harder to distinguish a stationary shadow from a moving one and made it harder to anticipate what was going to be around the next corner. Suddenly the procession stopped midway down a hall. Courtney strained to see what had caused the pause but couldn't see over the guards.

"At ease dear soldiers. These guests are not dangerous, yet." A voice spoke from up front. The guards parted to allow a man to walk up to the group of prisoners. He looked to be your average Earth man, except the orange eyes and blue hair of course. He wore black army boots, black gloves, a plain yellow jumpsuit, and an open lab coat with a shiny name-tag on the pocket. His name was Hijinx. The name was very familiar to Courtney. Dey had mentioned it, this guy was the scientist responsible for the three entities that had possessed them.

"Sir Hijinx we have direct orders from Thanos to bring these two to him at once." The head guard spoke up. His voice was robotic but his movements fluid as he indicated Alexi and Courtney. Courtney felt her blood run cold as Hijinx gave a slightly crazed laugh.

Hijinx pushed past the guard and approached Courtney, his lab coat swirling around his legs like a dog following its owner. She tried to step away from him but the guards behind her prevented that. "Oh don't worry Corporal, these girls are still mine. I have not yet sold them to Thanos. Technically I have the right to make sure their powers are fully unlocked before I give them up to destroy the galaxy." Courtney felt her eyes widen. They were supposed to do what now?!

Apparently the others were thinking the same thing. "Destroy the galaxy! C'mon man! What type of sick wackjob would kidnap a bunch of kids and poison them with some sort of element only to have them go and do a bunch of evil shit with it? Plus, what's the galaxy ever done that was so bad to you to make you wanna use some lab experiments to get rid of it?" Peter shouted. Hijinx turned to him with a look of disgust on his face.

"I do not give responses to Terran scum such as yourself." He replied curtly.

"Okay first, half Terran. Second, you just did give me a response." Peter clarified. Hijinx's uncaring expression barely changed a fraction of a millimeter as he backhanded Peter across the face so hard blood spat out of his mouth.

"Okay men." Hijinx turned away from the shocked Peter. "Grab those two and follow me." He motioned to Alexi and Courtney who were promptly grabbed by two of the guards and pulled after Hijinx.

"Don't worry guys!" Rocket called after them. "We'll think of somethin!"

"Yeah!" Peter shouted as well, wiping blood from his mouth. "I'm already devising a plan!"

"It's your stupid plan that got us into this mess in the first place!" Alexi screamed. It echoed off the walls and rang down the hall with a force Courtney wasn't entirely sure was human. "It's finished, I'm done listening to you Peter Quill!"

* * *

The lab was brighter than Courtney had expected. It wasn't like, 'alien spacecraft from the movies' white but more like 'hospital that just got a glowup' white. A metal table with padded arm, leg, and head rests was elevated in the middle of the room. Assorted needles, scalpels, fluids, and other surgery items were laying around, sanitized and ready for use. A row of wall computer tablet things stretched across the back of the room. What looked like coding numbers ran across the screens, emitting some kind of data.

"Well if they were going for a futuristic Frankenstein's lab they sure as hell nailed it." Alexi whispered to Courtney. Sarcasm seemed to be Alexi's number one way to cope with a life or death situation. The guards stepped forward and roughly pushed the two into the center of the room. Hijinx then entered and shut the door. Alexi and Courtney struggled against their captors holding them but they were stronger than they looked, keeping them in one position without even straining.

"Now that we have the girls all we need is that stupid element stealing stone." Hijinx remarked. Courtney and Alexi exchanged looks of confusion. What did this psycho need the Infinity Stone for? Hijinx must've noticed their look because one moment he was standing near the door and the next he was grabbing Alexi by her collar and lifting her up into the air. "Do you know where the stone is?" He asked in his eerily calm voice.

"Even if I did know," Alexi growled. "Who said I would tell you?" Hijinx stared at her for a few seconds before throwing her to the ground.

"I don't believe you." Hijinx motioned to the one guard. "Put her on the table. If she won't tell me where the stone is on her own accord than I guess we'll have to do this the hard way." As the guard grabbed Alexi Courtney wracked her brain for where the Infinity Stone could be. The last time she had seen it was on Earth. Could it still be there? Even if it wasn't, the lie was worth a try.

Alexi was being strapped down onto the table and thrashing like crazy, trying in vain to bite one of the hands holding her down. "Stop!" Courtney shouted. "I know where the stone is!" Hijinx acted like he couldn't hear her. "I said stop!" Courtney shouted louder. Hijinx just smiled a cruel smile at her.

"Oh sweetie." He crowed. "Do you really think I'd believe a word you say?" He laughed. "No, I want to hear it from her mouth." Hijinx indicated towards Alexi who was now completely immobile. Still she was writhing and twisting as best as she could to loosen the straps binding her to the table. "Now let's begin." Hijinx nodded to the guard poised over Alexi like a hungry hawk. The guard turned around and presented Hijinx with a small platter filled with small sharp knives. He selected a silver knife with a tip pointed like a dagger.

"If Courtney says she knows where the stone is then listen to her!" Alexi snarled, her eyes trained on the knife. "I don't know anything." She remarked defiantly. Hijinx shook his head.

"Oh my dear, that is entirely the wrong answer." Then, without his eyes ever leaving hers, Hijinx plunged the surgical knife into Alexi's thigh.

* * *

Peter knew something was wrong the moment he heard the scream. The guards had been marching them quickly down the hall ever since Hijinx had taken Courtney and Alexi. Gamora was the only one who knew this place and its layout but they weren't allowed to talk among themselves. When the scream echoed past them and down the corridor the guards halted part in shock and part in confusion.

"That was Alexi!" The Guardians exclaimed together.

"How could you tell?" Dey asked in confusion. They didn't answer him, instead Peter kicked his leg up and sent the guard closest to him flying into the wall, taking down two other guards at the same time. Gamora dropped out of the shocked guards eyesight and quickly knocked them over with a few slicing jabs to their legs and stomachs. Rocket wriggled his small wrists out of the over-sized cuffs and grabbed a gun from one of the guards Gamora had knocked over. The last three remaining guards, who were converging on Peter, fell writhing to the ground as Rocket took them out with expert shots.

"We need to get out of the hallway before reinforcements come." Gamora said as she unhooked the keys to the cuffs from one of the guards belts. Soon Dey, Peter, Gamora, and Rocket were running back down the hall towards where the scream had come from. Before they could get more than a few yards though, another wave of 20 soldiers came racing at them with guns blazing.

Gamora drew her sword, Peter his element guns, Rocket the large soldier gun, and Dey his Nova pistol. The guards rushed them but they were ready. Gamora sliced and diced at bodies, her sword breaking through the metal armor of the guards. Rocket and Dey sent soldiers writhing in pain to the ground while streams of water and fire shot out of Peter's gun to drive back more approaching forces. After about three minutes of endless fighting they realized that the soldiers just kept on coming no matter how much they killed or drove them back.

"What're we gonna do?" Rocket shouted to Peter. "I don't know how much longer we can fight these guys!" Peter took down two guards with an electrical blast from his gun and drove four more back with a spray of fire.

"I'm not sure Rock!" He called over the sounds of Gamora's sword and Dey's pistol at work. "Thanos has an infinite amount of Sakaaran soldiers according to Gamora!"

Rocket fired three quick shots from the gun in his hands before leaping over a fallen Sakaaran and landing next to Peter's ankle. "Well the last time I checked, there wasn't an infinite amount of us!" He hollered.

As Peter went to answer him and loud declaration of "I AM GROOT!" was heard. Groot, having been left behind under the Nova wreckage, bust through the soldiers in his scrawny but powerful form. Apparently mortal danger made him gain a growth sprout. He was no taller than Gamora and about as wide as Peter but he still packed a mighty punch as he flung three guards out of the way with one swipe.

"Groot's out of the pot a little early." Peter murmured. None of that mattered as Groot knocked over the remaining soldiers with a mighty swing of his arm. Now the hallway was clear, except for the Sakaaran bodies littering the floor.

"C'mon." Gamora motioned for the others to follow her as they finished retracing their steps back to where Hijinx had first grabbed Courtney and Alexi. Then they went down the hall they had watched Hijinx take and crept along until they met a fork in the road.

Dey looked down one hall and then the next. "I don't see them." He turned back to the Guardians. "Any ideas where they might be?" Before someone could answer him a banshee sounding shriek came echoing down from the left hall. They all took off running after the noise, eardrums dying from the sound. "Man, someone's got a set of pipes." Dey remarked under his breath.

A solid metal door was bolted at the end of the hall but it didn't last against a fire blast from Peter and a sharp kick from Gamora. The rag tag group entered into the lab to find Alexi on the table, blood soaking her stomach, shoulders, and thigh, and Courtney sporting some bruises and a black eye hanging limply in the two guards grasp. Hijinx stood over Alexi as he yanked a long knife out of her shoulder. She had two wounds to her thigh, one to her stomach, and three to her shoulders.

"Why hello there Guardians!" Hijinx smiled. "Welcome to my humble little lab!" He motioned to the room around them with the blood soaked knife. "I do hope you don't mind watching my little interrogation." As he spoke he slid the knife down Alexi's right arm, drawing a light stream of blood.

Rocket aimed his gun at Hijinx's chest. "What're you interrogating them about? They don't know anything 'bout space." His gaze swiveled around. "And this looks more like hitting and slicing than interrogating."

Hijinx shrugged. "Well when I say I'm interrogating your friend apparently little water sprite here likes to try to play hero. That can earn you some nice marks on your person honey." Hijinx crooned at Courtney. He laughed. "You Guardians don't realize what you've interrupted. Thanos will have my head if he knows I hurt his elementals." Hijinx sighed. "Which is why the interrogation must end soon." Hijinx stabbed Alexi right in her new stomach wound and twisted the knife. A scream loud enough to break glass left her mouth.

Courtney raised her head up and looked at the Guardians, her eyes glassy and unfocused. "They want to know about Reality." She whispered. Instantly all the Guardians remembered the orb on Earth, buried underneath Milano wreckage.

"Look here Hijinx buddy." Peter started. "Let them both go, and we'll tell you where the Infinity Stone is." Hijinx let out a chortled laugh.

"And what? Ruin all my fun?" He smiled a cruel psychotic smile. "I don't think so friends." Hijinx held the knife to Alexi's ribs as Rocket fired his gun. Hijinx was sent sprawling backwards against the wall. The two guards drew their weapons, dropping Courtney limply to the floor. Pandemonium broke out.

Gamora took her sword to Guard 1 who quickly evaded her sword. A look of shock fell over Gamora's face. She sent a spiral kick up into the guards face. The helmet and visor over their face broke in half. Nebula's face was underneath. "Hello sister." Nebula growled. Drawing her own sword the two sisters went into a mad duel.

Meanwhile the other guard was taking shots at the Guardians while ducking under and around equipment to avoid Dey and Rocket's wild blasts. Groot was being Courtney's support beam as he helped her off the floor while Peter unstrapped Alexi and started putting compression on her heavily bleeding stomach wound. "You two will be okay." Peter shouted over the sounds of gunfire and swords clashing.

"All this chaos, and for what?" Courtney asked as her still unfocused eyes surveyed the battle waging around them. "Sisters fighting each other, stray bullets pinging off priceless work, death and destruction following in the wake of every step." She looked Peter in the eye. "Where does it all end?" She asked. Peter had no answer for her. "I hate it all!" She screamed. "All outer space has shown me is pain and suffering! All the stories make the cosmos seem like a beautiful and perfect heaven for those seeking refuge from their horrible war torn lives, even the stupid rock showed me that when I touched it! Instead all this is just Earth, but worse." She stood up on shaky legs, brushing Groot to the side as her strength came back. "I hate it all." She whispered. Then louder. "I HATE IT ALL!" Her wail drew the attention of everyone, even the near delirious Alexi.

Courtney's whole body convulsed. Groot went to grab her as her legs nearly gave way beneath her. Instead, a wave of water swelled up and around her. It hoisted her up as her whole body transformed into a cascading waterfall. Her bandanna transformed into a flowing river of water hair that rippled with waves. A beautiful dress of water flowed over her blue skin. The water swelled up and around her like a protective shield. Everyone watched in shock as Courtney stood before them as a flowing water sprite. Then with a wave of her hand a wave came out of nowhere and swept Nebula, the guard, Dey, Hijinx, and all the Guardians out the door.

Peter sat up, spluttering on water from Courtney's wave. He heard Alexi coughing beside him. Peter leaned over and put his hand back over her stomach wound to stem the continuous blood flow. When his hand found her stomach her whole body sparked up into flames. Peter lept backwards in fear as Alexi rose up into the air, her whole being a deadly inferno. "I think I can heal myself Peter Quill." Alexi smiled as her orange-red fire skin melded her wounds back together. Everyone was stunned in silence as Alexi and Courtney, fire and water stood together.

"Oh and Peter," Alexi grinned. "I'm done listening to your stupid plans." Then Alexi and Courtney both took off down the hall. Alexi hovering with swirling tendrils of fire and Courtney riding on a semi tidal wave rising underneath her. The Guardians and Dey quickly chased after them, leaving the guard, Nebula, and Hijinx floating in the aftermath of Hurricane Courtney.

When the Guardians turned the corner they followed closely behind the two elementals as they headed towards what could only be Thanos chambers. Loud shouts were heard coming from the end of the maze they had been trapped in for the past near hour. Just as they were getting ready for an onslaught of guards rushing to stop their approach two figures came flying around the corner and crashed into Alexi and Courtney.

"Harmony, Drax!" Alexi shouted with joy.

Harmony jumped to her feet in a rush. "No time for talk, just run!"

* * *

 **AN: Sorry I haven't updated in months. School is coming to an end so that means tests and field trips and finishing study units and concerts and stuff. So less time to write. I promise to start up more regular updates with the next book. If you can't tell this one is coming to a close. Only two or three more chapters before the end, so sad. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this long chapter!**


	11. Escape From Sanctuary

**Escape From Sanctuary**

The Guardians, Dey, Alexi, and Courtney had found Harmony and Drax but they weren't out of the woods yet. Following not far behind the Guardian and the wind element were close to 500 Sakaaran guards being lead by a girl made of metal. "Don't let them get away!" She screeched. "Take the three elements alive and eliminate the others!"

"Guys I think we need to go!" Peter shouted. The group turned and fled in the other direction from which they had come. "Who is that girl?" Peter called to Harmony and Drax.

"That's Titanium!" Harmony shouted back. A dagger went hurtling by and nearly missed her face. "She can control metal." Harmony yelped. All of a sudden Alexi ground to a halt, her fiery tendrils licking at the walls around her.

"What are you doing?" Rocket shouted as Alexi turned around to face the oncoming hoard of soldiers. Alexi let her fire curl outwards so it formed a barrier between them and the guards. Titanium ground to a halt before the blockade and all the soldiers stopped behind her.

"Don't you remember that presentation Dey gave us on these elements?" Alexi asked. "Titanium can't go near fire." She smiled. "And I just so happen to be fire." The Sakaaran soldiers tried to get past Alexi's blaze but only succeeded in getting burned to a crisp. Titanium roared in anger as her spikes disintegrated into metallic puddles when they touched Alexi's barrier.

"Wait!" Courtney exclaimed. "Harmony, you're a wind element. You can boost Alexi's power." Harmony looked at the two with shock.

"I can do what now?" She asked. Courtney explained about the flowchart Dey had provided on the elements and how they each gained a boost and a decrease from each other. Then she explained who Dey was. Then she explained who the Novacore were. Then Courtney gave up explaining things to Harmony and yelled at her to become the wind sprite and boost Alexi's wall so they could escape. Harmony closed her eyes and the Guardians watched as her hair became a wild tumble of black curls and her whole body dissolved into a whirling spiral of wind.

Harmony flung out what used to be her hand, but now was nothing more than a mini tornado, and hit Alexi's wall with a blast of wind. The oxygen boost from her wind fed the roaring fire so much that the tips of the flames licked the 15 ft high ceiling. The walls were scorched into a brown crisp as the extensive heat of the fire burned anyone who came within 2 feet of it.

"I think now would be a good time to go!" Dey shouted. The others agreed and quickly sped back down the hallway to where they had been brought in by the guards. The twisted hallways suddenly seemed less confusing as the three elements led the Guardians and Dey to safety. Some guards tried to come around and drive them back but they were quickly sent the opposite way by either a wave from Courtney or a wind spiral from Harmony. Finally the group left the steel walls of Sanctuary behind and emerged onto the port where the rubble of the Nova ship lay.

"How are we gonna get out of here?" Drax asked Peter. Everyone turned to look at him, awaiting what the Guardians' leader would have in mind this time. Peter swiveled his head around looking at all his limited options.

"Maybe we could-" He was cut off by an enraged shout from the door. There stood Titanium, seething with anger. She had doubled back and around Alexi's fire, easily following their trail of dead or unconscious soldiers.

"You stupid elementals won't escape me this time!" She roared. She raised her hands above her head and the whole plate they were on shook. Metallic pieces from the very rock beneath their feet rose up at Titanium's call. Spikes protruded from the metal covering her body and more spikes flew out of Sanctuary to hover near her head. Everything stood very still, as though everyone was awaiting some kind of order to move.

"Get to a Sakaaran ship now!" Peter shouted. Whatever pitiful excuse for a war cry that was, it worked. Everyone flew into a flurry of activity. The Guardians and Dey charging over spikes that popped out of the ground at random heading towards the nearest hanger bay full of ships. The elementals headed straight for the raging Titanium trying to divert her attention from the others. Titanium was ready and willing to obliterate them all without a second thought.

"Hey metalhead!" Harmony shouted from where she hovered behind Titanium. She looked wild and crazed with her whole body whistling with the sound of rushing wind. Titanium turned around to face Harmony and as she did a stream of fire hit her backside making her collapse onto the rocky surface of Sanctuary.

"That's for trying to steal Harmony!" Alexi roared. Her fiery body spazzed and writhed with brewing rage as her flames grew larger until you couldn't tell if it was Alexi or a wildfire you were looking at. Titanium tried to get up but a water stream from Courtney sent her tumbling into the wall.

"That's for attacking the Guardians of the Galaxy!" Courtney yelled. Water cascaded off her body to form shallow pools in the dips and cracks of Sanctuary. She looked like a cross between a river goddess and some kind of water demon, her features both angelic and demonic at the same time.

Finally Titanium struggled to her feet and with a scream of rage threw an army of metallic spears at the three of them. Without leaving their midair positions Alexi blocked the spikes with a fiery wave of her hand, Courtney washed the fried metal back up to Titanium's feet, and Harmony shouted to the Guardians, "Cover your ears!"

Alexi and Courtney followed Harmony's order while the Guardians and Titanium paused momentarily. That momentarily was all it took for Harmony to release the loudest banshee shriek they had ever heard. It was an eardrum shattering, eyes watering, painful migraine for days, tortured animal cry of agony that shook them down to the core. The wail sent Titanium cowering to her knees in the fetal position and knocked both Alexi and Courtney out of the sky and to the ground. Courtney hit the rocky surface and started bleeding from the cuts along her arm as her watery skin disintegrated. Alexi fell into a puddle of water and cried out in pain as her fiery skin escaped in a mountain of steam. All the Guardians and Dey were hunkered down as Harmony's scream died out like the wind did when a storm ended.

Peter picked up is head which was ringing and looked up at Harmony. Her mouth moved like she was saying something but his hearing was slightly on the fritz. The confused looks from the others told him that they too would be momentarily deaf. Harmony's winds dispersed and she lowered herself to the ground where she lifted the bleeding Courtney and the shaking Alexi off the ground. The three girls looked like they were speaking to each other as they limped across to the Guardians who had found a nonexplosive Sakaaran ship to borrow back to Xandar or Terra or wherever they were going now.

Alexi sparked her hands up with a small flame and wrote some hovering fire words up in front of the Guardians. Then had Courtney extinguish them so she could rewrite them facing the Guardians so that they could read it. She finally got it right on the fourth try, as writing with fire in the sky was hard, especially after getting thrown out of the sky and into a pile of water. **You'll be deaf for about 5 minutes.**

The Guardians nodded that they had read it and the group silently made their way onto the ship, most of them clutching their pounding heads like they had a headache. Rocket jump started the ship and soon they were off zooming through the cosmos.

* * *

 **5 minutes later**

"So now that I can actually hear and concentrate," Began Peter, "Let's discuss what we're going to do, what happened back there, and if we're safe." He paused. "But not in that exact order since I think the whole what we're going to do now and if we're safe is more pressing than what the girls just did."

"I liked you a lot better when you weren't being annoying." Alexi grumbled. She was icing some bruises on her face while Courtney was getting her wounds cleaned up and Harmony was laying down to rest in the backroom they had found.

"We need to go back to Terra." Gamora spoke up from where she was getting some bandages out of the medical box for Courtney. "Thanos most likely knows that the Infinity stone is down there and we need to be there first to get it." Drax shook his head.

"No way, Thanos cannot know about the Infinity Stone because the wind sprite and I told him nothing." Alexi and Courtney nodded their heads in agreement.

"Muscle maniac has a point." Alexi spoke up. "Hijinx got nothing out of me and Courtney." Alexi shot a glare at Courtney. "Despite the fact that she almost told him."

"Well excuse me for wanting to help you!" Courtney muttered. Alexi ignored her. The Guardians noted that some animosity seemed to have sprung up between the two. Was that because water and fire were enemies? Or was it something else? They chose not to reflect on it as Dey came back into the room after a conference call with Nova Prime.

"We're not going to Terra." He said. "We need to report to Xandar what has developed. That Thanos and a scientist are working together, that Thanos is in possession of a powerful weapon, and that we have three of the things that Thanos wants."

Alexi shot a glare at Dey. "Courtney, Harmony, and I are not things mind you. We're human beings that just found out we have unbridled power." She removed the ice from the bruise on her forehead and moved it to her cheek. "The least you could do is have a little sympathy."

Gamora put her hand on Alexi's shoulder but when she stiffened Gamora removed it. "We do sympathize with you three for what has happened, truly. Dey was insensitive to refer to you as things." Gamora glared at him. "Apologize." She ordered.

Dey sighed. "I will refrain from referring to you three as things from now on, okay?" Courtney and Alexi nodded. "I can't guarantee that others will do the same though." He continued. "Now back to the matter at hand, it doesn't matter what any of you think, Nova Prime's orders are Nova Prime's orders. We have what Thanos wants so that automatically gives us the upper-hand."

Gamora scoffed. "We would have more of the upper-hand if we went to Terra to get the stone." Peter shook his head as he sided with Dey.

"We can't argue with orders Gamora. No matter how much we want to, it's just not the right time to go on another trip to Terra. We'll just have to hope that Thanos doesn't put two and two together."

"What does basic math have to do with Thanos knowing where the Infinity Stone is?" Asked Drax. Everyone looked at him. "Oh wait, was that a metaphor?" They all nodded. Drax just shook his head and sat back in his seat.

"So to Xandar it is then?" Peter asked. Dey nodded and Peter set course for Xandar. Everyone then went their own separate ways to either think (Like Courtney and Peter), rest (Like Alexi and Gamora), tinker (Like Rocket and Groot), or eat (Like Drax and Dey). What none of them knew was that their adventures were far from over. Not even close, they were just getting started.


	12. Epilogue

**E** **pilogue**

"You useless hunk of junk!" Thanos roared. Titanium was on her knees before his throne, head down with shame. Hijinx, Nebula, and two guards stood behind her. The guards had brought the shaking Titanium in from outside and Nebula had helped them with the unconscious Hijinx. Now they all stood before Thanos' throne awaiting what would happen.

"I'm sorry for my failure sir, truly, but if you'll allow me to explain-" Titanium's plea was cut off by Thanos raging anger.

"Explain? You want to explain?" Thanos gave a curt laugh. "You think I'm going to just sit up here and listen to you attempt to explain why you could not defeat three young and untrained elementals? Well you're wrong girl! You told me that you could beat them and you failed." Titanium lowered her head down even more, her gaze trained directly on the ground. "I hate failures." Thanos hissed. "I was told that you could beat anyone you fought, whether they made you weaker or stronger. That was a lie too apparently!" Thanos smashed his fist into the armrest of his chair. "I will deal with you soon."

Thanos then looked to Hijinx and Nebula. "What were you two doing with Inferno and Tsunami?" His tone was calmer but still deadly as a snake waiting to pounce.

"My lord Thanos," Hijinx began with a bow. "Nebula and I were attempting to extract information from them, to find the whereabouts of the Infinity Stone. I would guess that finding it would be of your highest priority." Hijinx glanced at Thanos to see his expression. Thanos appeared as a blank slate.

"Did you find anything?" Thanos rumbled. Hijinx turned to Nebula who stood like a statue, her gaze staring over Thanos shoulder. Hijinx turned back to Thanos and shook his head.

"We discovered nothing my lord." Hijinx backed out of his bow and stood next to Nebula yet again. "But I do have a proposition for you." Hijinx motioned to Titanium. "Allow me to have a go at this scrap metal here and make some necessary repairs." Hijinx smiled that trademark malicious grin. "I bet you'll be pleased with the results." Thanos pondered this for a minute before nodding his head.

"Permission granted Hijinx." Thanos watched as the two guards grabbed Titanium off the floor and walked out, Hijinx and Nebula trailing behind them. "Nebula, stay." Thanos ordered. Nebula paused at the door before turning back to Thanos. She made no move to approach him anymore.

"Yes father?" She asked.

"I want you to keep an eye on that scientist boy." Thanos ordered. "I don't want anyone getting the bright idea that they can double cross the great and powerful Thanos."

Nebula bit back a remark about Gamora double crossing the 'Great and Powerful Thanos' and instead gave a small bow of acknowledgement. "I will do my best father." Then Nebula turned and left and followed Hijinx back to the washed out lab.

The blood on the table was dried and the walls were still dripping with water. Small puddles resided in corners and only 5 out of the 7 lights overhead were still lit. One buzzed and crackled faintly, that slight hissing and popping the only noise in the otherwise quiet room. Hijinx ran his hand over an arm restraint, his fingernails picking at the dried blood remaining there from the Terrain girl.

"What are you really planning?" Nebula asked Hijinx. He looked up from his absentminded state and seemed to look right through her. "Hijinx, I'm willing to betray Thanos for you and your crazy science pets, I think I deserve some sort of explanation as to what your plans are. It's not hard to see that Plan A failed, and I don't believe that you would ever go into a mind game with the Mad Titan unless you had a couple hundred backup plans."

Before Hijinx could answer Titanium lifted her gaze from the floor and stared Hijinx in the eyes. "You're planning to play a game with the most powerful being in the universe and you choose the three most powerful entities to lose and the least powerful one to present as your token? Are you insane or just plain dumb!" Titanium tried to step towards Hijinx but the guards held her back.

"I'm neither dear girl." Hijinx ran his hand down Titanium's cheek. "I just have had a few setbacks." The Hijinx addressed Nebula. "Your loyalty to me is greatly appreciated Daughter of Thanos, I do believe we will do great work together. I do not, at the moment, have anything solidly set down for what to do next. I didn't anticipate the Guardians of the Galaxy getting involved with this matter."

Nebula scoffed. "They get involved in everything Thanos related. Now that they know that a mad scientist and Thanos are both after the powerful creatures in their protection the Nova Core will get involved. That was a Nova officer with them anyway so now we have an even bigger obstacle. Of course that also provides us with more cover as Thanos will be preoccupied with keeping the Nova Core out of our business."

"Then it's time to start phase two of my plan." Hijinx pulled up a com as Nebula glared daggers at his back for his rudeness of not letting her in on the phases of his plan. A crackly voice answered Hijinx's call. "Dr. Shar'tugo," Hijinx greeted. "I need you to begin phase two of my plan. Now I know that I don't have the exact whereabouts of the Reality Stone but I'm sure that will only delay us slightly, right?" The person on the other end just grunted. "Wonderful!" Hijinx clapped his hands. "Then we'll begin as soon as Titanium here is all in ship shape." The call ended.

As the guards strapped Titanium onto the table Nebula stood off in the corner and watched, memories flickering through her head of all the times she had been in Titanium's spot. All the time it had been Thanos and his men over her with tools and fluids instead of someone with kindness in his heart. Sure Hijinx could be a pain in the ass most of the time and he always talked in riddles, but deep down Nebula could see a good person just wanting to do right by his people. Her joining him in his mad quest for redemption; involving elements, Terrain girls, Infinity Stones, and the fate of the whole universe; was a suicide mission from the start. It wasn't like she could just back out now though, she had already helped him out so much that whatever happened was on her. Nebula would just have to wait it out until she took her last breath or Hijinx's plan worked.

"So what are you planning to do?" Titanium asked as Hijinx tested the tools to make sure they weren't damaged. "Since I'm your lab rat you might as well tell me. It's not like Thanos would believe a failure anyway."

"My plan is complex and confusing, even to my own scientific mind. Many variables, many unknowns, many things that could change, next to zero constants. Luck and fate will be on my side, as will four very amazing elements." Hijinx finished testing his tools and leaned over to look right at Titanium. "Because you see darling, I'm not here to play games with Thanos, oh no, that would be far too immature." Hijinx snickered a little as though he were imagining the thought. Finally he composed himself although his eyes were still lit up with bemusement. When he spoke his voice was hard and cold, a total change from the happy scientist from mere seconds earlier. His words still sent chills down Nebula's spine just as the day he had first said them to her.

"No, I'm not here for children's games. I am here to wage a war against Thanos."

* * *

 **So that's the end of book 1! How did you all like it? I hope you liked it cause things are going to get messy fast! I'm already starting on Book 2 and I hope to publish the first chapter before school lets out. I might not update much over the summer but I'll get faster by the fall most likely. Oh and by the way, Book 2 will be called "Elemental Girls Book 2 - Fury of Inferno" so that's a dead giveaway as to who we might focus on. (Personally Alexi is my favorite, who's yours?) Anyway, hope you enjoyed the story, please don't be scared to leave a review! I'll update this book with a sneak peek before I publish Book 2, so look forward to that!** **-Rocket**


	13. Book 2 Preview

**Book 2 Preview**

Peter Quill could ultimately say that this was the most trouble he had ever gotten himself into. Here he was pinned to a wall, his armor discarded away, his weapons out of reach, and one flaming fire element moving closer. Alexi's flames kissed the tips of his boots and he felt the searing heat seem to weld his clothes to his skin. Her eyes were deathly yellow and seemed to rage with the fury of a thousand supernovas. Her hair was wildly sizzling, fire tendons reaching up as the never ending supply of oxygen from Harmony over across the room fueled her even more. Peter was starting to realize that agreeing to help train the elementals was a insanely stupid idea. He'd expected to be a teacher not a candlestick!

"Okay Nova Prime I, I think we're done here!" Peter shouted. He prayed that Nova Prime was still by the com unit, or even anybody was by the com unit. Otherwise the soundproof training area would be the only thing that heard his cries. Sure, Harmony might stop feeding Alexi energy because Harmony was kind but Alexi had been told not to take it easy on him, and she was enjoying doing just that a little too much. Peter was internally cursing Nova Prime for not allowing Courtney in there with them, she would have been helpful at this point.

Just as Peter felt Alexi's flames reach his face a bell sounded from up above. Alexi glanced up as Nova Prime's voice came through the com. "That'll be enough for today Alexi." Peter breathed a sigh of relief as the fire spirit stepped back and slowly her flames dispersed. With a light puff of smoke, almost like when you extinguished a candle, Alexi turned back into her normal punk Terrain self. Complete with a Nova Core uniform of course. Despite the pleas of some higher ranking officers Alexi, Harmony, and Courtney had been dubbed Nova Core in training. It had been seen as not only a disgrace to the Nova Core title but their Terrain heritage made them the instant underdogs among the other trainees.

Peter heard footsteps approach him and opened his eyes from when he had closed them. The painful blisters stinging his eyelids made his whole body ache at the motion of keeping them open. The footsteps approaching him belonged to the wind sprite Harmony. Known around the Nova office as the "girl with the voice of a banshee" it was less that the other trainees didn't like her and more that they were scared of her. Why they weren't scared of Alexi's ever raging volcanic fire or Courtney's tidal force waves was beyond him. Xandarians and their culture just plain confused him.

"You okay Quill?" Harmony asked, her voice hoarse from countless screeching exercises. She hadn't yet been able to recreate the scream that had incapacitated Titanium on Sanctuary but that didn't make her other screams any less terrifying. Any one of them could leave you with headaches or even deafness for a number of minutes. As far as non killing techniques went, Harmony's were the best by a long shot. Alexi hadn't yet mastered the art of not killing with her fire and Courtney more or less threw people or left them gasping for breath briefly. Either way, Nova Prime had already dubbed them as different power handles. Alexi was the muscle of the group, Harmony the spy, and Courtney the diplomat.

Peter struggled to his feet, tears in his eyes from the pain in his nearly flambe`d muscles. "Yep, 100% okay." He groaned in agony. Harmony shook her head.

"You males and your pride." She turned her back and followed Alexi out of the training room. "I was going to offer advice on how to help with those blisters but if you aren't that hurt..." Harmony let the sentence trail off as she stood near the door. Peter didn't even bother to consider what she had in mind before he was stumbling forwards calling for her to wait. Harmony just smiled and took Peters arm to support him as they both stumbled out of the room. The girls had gotten pretty used to their time here at Nova Headquarters, and on Xandar in general. They had taken to the planet and its customs much faster than Peter had when he first saw it. It had only been three months since the battle at Sanctuary and already they had settled in among the Xandarians.

As Harmony led Peter to the infirmary Nova Prime stepped towards them from the room that overlooked the training area. "Mr. Quill, what is your evaluation on Alexi's heat abilities?" Alexi turned around from where she was going back to her shared room with Courtney and Harmony to hear what Peter had to say. Peter searched through his heat lashed mind trying to come up with an answer.

"Can you simplify the question?" He asked.

Nova Prime rolled her eyes. "How well will she perform in battle?" She asked with a little more exasperation in her voice.

"Oh!" Peter cried with understanding. "Yeah, she's, well, she packs a punch with that flame." No one laughed. "That was a stupid joke." Peter mumbled. "Well she has a long reach for her powers I guess, I mean my skin was being seared off when she was halfway across the room. Then again I think that was only when Harmony was feeding her oxygen from her wind power. Overall I'd say her heat was at a fairly high temperature but it only incapacitated you when she was right up in your face or Harmony gave her power. She also seems unable to regulate how hot or dull her flames are, I think only Courtney or Harmony could regulate that based on how she operates under their powers." Peter finished rambling off every thought on his mind and looked at Nova Prime to see how he had done.

"So you're saying that Alexi's power can only be useful and contained when under the influence of the others' powers?" Nova Prime asked.

"No, wait that's not-" Peter went to interject but Nova Prime was already walking down the hall talking into her com about Peter's observations. Peter turned around and was staring face to face with Alexi.

"You think I can't control my power!" She screamed. Peter flinched back but he knew Alexi's power wouldn't flare up. Each girl had a trigger on their power. Alexi's was fear, Harmony's was anger, and Courtney's was hatred. Those triggers were the only things that held the girls back in training, they couldn't bring those emotions on because they were emotions the girls had trained themselves for years to ignore. Still, Peter could never be sure what would cause Alexi to be scared.

"I didn't mean it like that." Peter tried to calm Alexi down. "I was just saying that usually your power work best when under the influence of another power." Apparently that was the wrong thing to say as Alexi turned around and walked off, hands balled up into fists.

"C'mon Alexi, it's not the end of the world if you get a bad grade on your training." Harmony tried to reason with her. Alexi whirled around, the tips of her hair starting to smoke.

"But it could be! Have you ever considered the end of that prophecy thing that stupid stone spat out? We're supposed to save the entire universe from something unheard of before and you don't think I need optimum power to do that? We all need to be at our best in order to fight, and if that stupid Nova person doesn't think I'm capable of fighting without some babysitters than I won't get to fight!" Alexi's tone turned dark. "And I want to make the people who did this to us suffer for an eternity." Alexi turned around and stormed off to her room. "I'll show you all!" She howled. "I'll show you just what Inferno can do!"


End file.
